Great Southern Bank is using lending technology from the cloud banking vendor nCino to increase efficiency for commercial and retail loan officers. 

“We had a [loan origination system] that really handled everything from application through underwriting and approval,” said Ryan Storey, director of loan operations at the bank, during a webinar with nCino today. “But everything post-approval through documentation and closing the transactions was a conglomerate of other software solutions that didn’t talk to one another.”  

With nCino, the Springfield, Mo.-based Great Southern Bank has consolidated its lending technology onto a single platform so loan officers can more easily communicate. The bank, which has $5.1 billion in assets, has also consolidated its commercial and retail operations onto the same platform so loan officers who service both types of customers can work seamlessly.  

According to nCino, the company’s technology can increase lending capacity by 300%, and the number of loans closed per year by 156%.  

Storey said one key to increased efficiency for Great Southern Bank has been nCino’s document manager. Bank employees can upload documents to the system and share them with other departments. Users can see when documents were uploaded and by whom. “It’s something everybody uses on an everyday basis,” Storey said. 

See also: How Gulf Coast Bank and Trust cut loan underwriting times in half

In addition to the document management system, Storey noted that the bank’s employees can comment on applications throughout a loan’s lifetime and see previous comments, providing an easy way for employees to communicate and share information about a loan. The bank also recently rolled out third-party tracking for retail lending. In the past, underwriters would document data, such as appraisals and property valuations, in Excel spreadsheets, often leaving retail bankers in the dark. The new feature helps digitize the whole process and keep all employees updated. 

According to nCino, its platform can accelerate underwriting times by 91%. The Wilmington, N.C.-based company was founded in 2012, and counts TD Bank, Navy Federal and Regions as clients.  

However, despite the upgrades a company like nCino can offer banks, some argue that fintech lenders are better poised to reach small businesses, especially small-scale e-commerce companies.  

“It’s the issue of being too small for a bank and, even if they talk to you, you don’t have enough history of business execution to be a bank client,” Juozas Kaziukenas, CEO of e-commerce research firm Marketplace Pulse, previously told Bank Innovation.