Sprout recognizes that by reducing cycle time, it can lead to greater underwriter productivity which, as Santos pointed out, has an impact on profitability – an all-important aspect, particularly as he was also hired to reduce origination costs.
He said: “We’re moving to a place where data is going to be available from digital sources. And if we can’t get data directly from source, we can quickly convert any paper documentation to a digital format and use that digital format to allow the machine to apply machine learning algorithms that expedite decision making. That’s where the industry is headed.”
It brought the conversation round to the original point about automation versus manual underwriting. Measuring his words, Santos was at pains to explain that brokers were not being edged out of the equation.
He said: “There are likely always to be edge cases which will require a human being to apply experience, we’re never stating that that will go away completely.
“What we’re saying is there are key inputs where we’re measuring and analyzing data that can be converted from a manual process to a binary digital process. That’s what we’re doing with bank statements – we’re converting paper bank statements to digital content.”