With a quick Google search, it’s clear to see the sheer volume of resources financial institutions have dedicated to improving the consumer journey. Unfortunately, that same strategy hasn’t always applied to the business banking and SMB lending experience.
Today’s financial institutions are recognizing the gaps in their technology and digital capabilities when it comes to business customers and are working to close them quickly. While some prefer to develop their own solutions, the inflexibility of “off-the-shelf” solutions and lack of in-house talent and resources has traditionally forced institutions to look to outside vendors – something that can create its own challenges.
However, with low-code/no-code, embedded fintech solutions that have recently entered the market, banks and credit unions now have the tools to face these challenges in-house. These solutions bring the power of automation to business banking and SMB lending at financial institutions – creating better, faster, more transparent digital experiences for their business customers, from onboarding to servicing.
Businesses have choices when it comes to their banking experience, and its past time that banks and credit unions confront the pain points these customers often face. Although many financial institutions expect their business customers will remain loyal because of long-term relationships and re-starting their financial journey elsewhere sounds excruciating, that’s simply not the case anymore. Business customers want a bank that meets – and hopefully even exceeds – the digital expectations, in both products and services, that they see in their daily lives as consumers.
However, too often, business customers confronted with outdated technology and processes before they can even begin their financial journey. For example, when businesses set up their initial account, it can take days – or even weeks – to open that account. Business customers must provide a plethora of financial details; information from multiple stakeholders; dozens of signatures from corporate officers; and information on each one of the owners of the business in order to meet regulatory requirements. Too often, banks and credit unions simply aren’t equipped to manage this without requiring everyone involved to come into the branch together.
Once a business banking account is established, customers are then presented with yet another challenge: a lack of self-service options. In retail banking, customers can handle almost all of their banking activities without making a call to the bank or stepping foot in a branch. Yet, due to the limited advances in the technology that supports the business banking experience, most banking activities require the business customer to contact the bank. Even common actions like viewing all transactions over the last year is often a difficult process that requires a visit to a branch, a phone call or at the least, a re-route from the banking app to an external site.
Today, with the advent of low-code/no-code technology, financial institutions have a cost-effective method to fill the gaps in their customer’s business banking and SMB lending experience. With the help of modern technology platforms and solutions, banks and credit unions are more readily overcoming common hurdles to in-house development – including cost and lack of development expertise – to create greater operational efficiencies, increase overall productivity and free up IT and engineering teams to focus their time and attention on additional projects.
These embedded fintech tools provide financial institutions and their employees with fast access to pre-existing, pre-coded templates that can be easily customized for each institution and its business customers’ wants and needs. By leveraging open APIs, the institution can more easily connect the business banking interface to its existing core solution as well as other fintech applications, like mobile banking apps, data transfer networks, verifiers, payments portals and more.
From account opening to servicing, the introduction of no-code technology is changing the business banking experience and creating opportunities for financial institutions to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.