The loan underwriting process is often a black box of inefficiency. Most lenders know they need to speed things up, but they can't see where the real bottlenecks are hiding.
This isn't just a business problem. When loans take too long to process, everyone loses. Customers get frustrated. Underwriters feel stressed. And your company loses money on every extra day a loan application sits unfinished.
But what if you could cut your processing time in half? What if you could see exactly where the delays happen and fix just those specific problems?
Insurers are unlocking millions in savings with process intelligence. Let's discuss how.
The Visibility Problem in Loan Underwriting
Most banking lenders only see parts of their underwriting process. They track how long applications sit in each formal stage, but miss all the work that happens between those stages.
It's like trying to fix a car while only looking at 30% of the engine.
This leads to:
- Fixing symptoms instead of root causes
- Investing in solutions that don't solve the real problems
- Missing the biggest opportunities for improvement
- Over-reliance on automation and RPA
How Process Intelligence Tracks Real Time Spent
Process intelligence tools like Skan AI work differently. They observe the actual work happening across every application and system.
This reveals surprising insights about where time really goes. In almost every case, Microsoft Office applications play a much bigger role than leaders realize.
One major lender found that underwriters spent 38% of their time in Excel, Outlook, and even Notepad tools, entirely invisible for their process tracking systems. These "shadow processes" often contain the most important work, yet they're never measured or improved. This is also a big gap with traditional process mining and task mining tools.
Revealing True Bottlenecks
With complete visibility, the real culprits behind slow underwriting emerge:
- Application switching: Underwriters often jump between 6-8 different systems for a single loan
- Document handling: Verification steps frequently cause unexpected delays
- Data re-entry: The same information gets typed multiple times into different systems
One of the biggest surprises? The formal verification steps that everyone focuses on are rarely the biggest time-wasters. Instead, it's the work between these steps that creates most delays.
A data-driven approach to an application rationalization methodology ensures informed decisions in portfolio rationalization based on actual usage patterns rather than assumptions.
Real Results: 30% Productivity Boost
A leading underwriter recently deployed Skan AI across their entire operation. The process intelligence platform observed end-to-end actions across three underwriting teams-capturing every step, every application, and every outcome.
The results were eye-opening:
- They found major process variations between teams doing the same work
- They identified non-value-added tasks to eliminate
- They discovered redundant activities happening across teams
By fixing these specific issues, they achieved:
- 30% improvement in productivity across teams
- $11 million in annual savings
- Standardized processes that reduced variations and errors
Prioritizing the Right Fixes for Maximum Impact
Complete process visibility helps underwriting teams focus on high-impact improvements that directly affect key metrics. Skan AI helps enterprises drive change that produces real results.
- Cost per loan: Reduced by 25-30% by eliminating redundant steps
- First-time approval rates: Improved by 15-20% through better upfront preparation
- Underwriter productivity: Increased by 30-40% by reducing application switching
- Document rework: Cut by 60% through standardized processes
The most effective process improvements weren't complicated technology overhauls. They were targeted fixes to specific bottlenecks:
- Routing cases to the staff with the right skillsets
- Eliminating non-value-added tasks entirely
- Creating standard operating procedures
- Improving digital tool performance
What's Next?
You can't fix what you can't see. Skan AI gives underwriting teams complete visibility into how work actually happens across every application, every step, and every team.
And you can't prepare for the Agentic AI world of tomorrow if your processes are not right today.
The results speak for themselves: 30% productivity improvement, millions in savings, and a much better experience for both underwriters and customers.
Want to see where your underwriting bottlenecks are hiding? Let's talk.
