Approved Thursday, funded elsewhere

Thursday afternoon. A small-business owner gets the call: his equipment loan is approved. He's relieved. The closing documents arrive the following Wednesday. On Tuesday, another lender he had also applied to sent the money. The lender did all the work and earned nothing.

Picture a non-bank lender writing small-business and equipment loans. Applications were long and asked for wet signatures, and 62% were never finished or never funded. Processors chased documents by email for a week. Each file was keyed again for underwriting. Closing documents were drafted by hand, and closing took 21 days from application. One approved borrower in six funded somewhere else first. Each loan cost twelve processor hours.

What SBK rebuilt

SBK mapped the path from application to funded loan. Each approval lost to a faster lender cost the full underwriting work and about $9,000 of revenue. The rebuild shortened the application and lets borrowers save and return. Loan officers call anyone who stalls. Documents are read and checked as they arrive. The underwriting file assembles itself, and the underwriter makes the call the same day. Closing documents are drafted the moment a loan is approved. Payments and notices run on their own, and officers offer the next loan before borrowers shop.

What moved

55% of applications funded, up from 38%. Loans closed in nine days instead of 21. Processors spent four hours per loan, not twelve. Only one approval in twenty went elsewhere. The lender funded more loans with the same team.