By: Beatrice Silva
2 min read November 2020 — Technology is revolutionizing the way financial institutions operate. Gone are the days when customers had to wait in line to cash a check, make a deposit, or even receive a substantial PPP loan. Financial technology, also known as fintech, is allowing banks to streamline operations, making the industry more efficient than ever before.
Living in a digital age, the world is truly at the consumer’s fingertips. Instant gratification has become the new standard of operations. As the world evolves into a more virtual reality so do customer preferences. This generational transformation has encouraged fintechs and banking institutions to forge a relationship that reflects a cohesive well-oiled machine.
“It has become an expectation for customers that you have these digital capabilities. We need to be able to serve our customers wherever they want to be served. Whether it is physically in our locations, telephonically through our call center, or digitally through our online banking platforms. Making sure you make those investments is what I think customers are expecting their financial partners to do. Digital investments are vital if you want to continue to have loyal customers,” Jeff Schweitzer, president and CEO of Univest Financial Corporation, told Invest: Philadelphia.
Necessity is the mother of innovation, especially in the banking industry this past year. While the customer service business model had been evolving gradually, the pandemic forced an acceleration to just a matter of days and weeks of what could have taken years. During the pandemic, financial institutions needed to leverage technology to not only better serve their customers but to meet expectations.
The first round of PPP, the federal loan program designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll, debuted on April 16. Within days of the initial PPP rollout, banks like Univest were able to file thousands of PPP loan applications with help from fintech companies like nCino and Wolters Kluwer. During this period, Univest distributed over 514 million dollars to small businesses in need.
“We believe the pandemic has dramatically demonstrated for financial institution executives that moving through a cloud environment can’t just be part of their future roadmap: It’s an immediate imperative,” Pierre Naudé, CEO of nCino, said in an earnings call. “The size and prominence of the global financial institutions that are engaging with us today confirm that digital transformation in banking is happening and is accelerating. The strength of our pipeline is further evidence of this fact.”
It comes as no surprise that the future of banking will continue to drive collaboration with cloud banking operating systems. Univest’s approach to using technology has proven to increase efficiency and profitability across all lines of business.
“We’ve continued to deepen the relationship with nCino. We just got a report that the loans that we are doing with nCino have lowered the amount of time that it would normally take us to complete a transaction by 60%. So that has created incredible efficiency for us. It allows the customer to get whatever funding they are looking for quicker while allowing us to continue to leverage technology and grow without having to add more physical bodies to our team. We look forward to continuing that relationship with nCino. We are using it for commercial loans now. I know there are future opportunities on the consumer side that we can continue to explore,” said Schweitzer.
To learn more, please visit:
https://www.ncino.com/success/univest-bank
Univest Bank and Trust Co. is Member FDIC, an Equal Opportunity and SBA Preferred Lender.
