As governments and organizations across the world are considering re-opening businesses, it is increasingly apparent that there is no fast-track path back to normal – but planning to ensure future resilience against uncertainty should be happening, now. As the business and human impacts of the global pandemic continue, it’s right time for financial institutions, businesses and others to reassess and reshape their mindset on longer-term strategy and risk planning.
Why reshaping your mindset matters
Financial institutions are key service providers, even more so in the current crisis. Their ability to provide lending during this time is crucial to ensure that businesses can access the capital they need to sustain operations, pay staff and suppliers and continue business-as-usual activities.
Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, only in a matter of weeks, small businesses in every sector, in almost every market, needed immediate loans to remain even partially operational. Governments asked FIs to move that money, and to do it very quickly.
It’s abundantly clear that the operations and infrastructure of all FIs, lenders included, should not only be robust but also future-proofed to cope with uncertainty and increased risk. The pandemic has amplified the need for a strong technology backbone that withstands uncertainty of any magnitude.
The right technology infrastructure—one that is flexible, scalable and configurable—is fundamental today. Tony Sweeney, the CIO at Close Brothers Asset Finance, a Q2 Cloud Lending customer said, “We’re not here to build technology, we’re here to provide technology which enables our people to function better. An example of this being needed is the current COVID-19 situation and we obviously had kind of a change freeze for a brief period while assessed the various risks of working from home, but as of this week, we’re back to doing two releases, two live a week.”
Two important things to consider when preparing for the “new” normal
To quote Warren Buffett from a previous financial crisis, "It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked”. Many businesses have been able to rapidly adjust to the changing needs of their people and their customers, and they have not been left short when the proverbial tide has gone out. They have these two things in common:
1. They were ready to navigate change quickly.
The ability to navigate financial and operational challenges is paramount. In the case of lenders, adapting to change swiftly can be the difference to processing loans fast enough or losing out on the opportunity to do so. Without a strong technology core, reacting quickly to risk is almost impossible.
2. They choose trusted partners.
Working with partners who know the rules about recent government financial assistance and have the right technical knowledge and capability will help you adapt and give you the confidence to tackle anything. In Close Brothers’ case, Cloud Lending’s knowledge base and technology allow the company’s sales support and business operations people to become closer to the customers in these troubled times
Act now, help your customers and build greater loyalty
The pandemic has shown us that we are all vulnerable and no individual or organization is immune to its impact, economic or otherwise. The time to act against future uncertainty is now. Taylor Adkins, VP of Product at Q2 Cloud Lending, commented after talking to lenders in North America and across Europe about their response to Government Coronavirus Packages for small businesses:
“Lenders need to take bold steps to transform how they work, now! This crisis has compressed the timeline within which lenders need to change their operating models. Digital automation is no longer a competitive advantage, it’s the only way to do business, particularly when faced with circumstances that are testing all of us”
How we can help
Q2 Cloud Lending is focused on turning massive challenges into meaningful change. In the U.S. we have launched an SBA Loan solution to accelerate application acceptance and funding to small businesses. The solution enables business to quickly apply for COVID support relief and lets lenders efficiently onboard, track and manage loans.
We have already taken many regional banks and one of the largest international credit card providers live in less than a week and one global bank provider is processing SBA CARES packages at a rate of 100 applications an hour!
Visit these pages to find out more about our support for coronavirus government schemes globally,
If you would like to speak to someone about our cloud-based, end-to-end configurable lending platform, please get in touch.
