Bendigo and Adelaide Bank partners with Sandstone Technology

By Leandra Monteiro

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank partnered with Sandstone Technology to transform and streamline their loan processing systems and processes. With legacy lending systems and a growing broker channel, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s Third-Party Banking Division identified the need to transform and remediate its loan processing systems.

Wanting to eradicate manual loan processing tasks for both the Bank and its brokers, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank worked with Sandstone to identify where processes could be automated as much as possible. This included implementing eligibility rules and lending criteria filters within Sandstone’s LendFast platform which drove efficiencies in processing times.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank wanted to implement a one-platform, one-process approach to processing loans that would cover all of its Third Party origination channels and limit the exposure to existing legacy systems. Together with Sandstone Technology, the Bank has achieved quicker loan processing through Sandstone’s Loan Origination platform (LendFast) which is integrated with the bank’s lending ecosystem.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank together with Sandstone sought a way to further simplify the broker experience to allow a more automated capability to submit loan increases and product conversions in addition to new business. Simultaneously, brokers receive more value-adding information from the Bank via enhanced back-channel messages in real-time at the point of submission. The result is fewer touchpoints, a significant reduction in rework, and an improved experience for brokers, which aligns to some of the critical success factors within the current transformation program.

The collaboration between Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Sandstone Technology has helped facilitate some long awaited and significant enhancements within the Bank’s Third-Party division. It has achieved a one-way approach to the way the Third Party division assesses and processes loan applications and enhances the experience for its broker channel, partners, and customers.

Darren Kasehagen, General Manager of Third-Party Banking at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank said the collaboration with Sandstone Technology has been a successful one for the Bank.

“We strive every day to be a better bank, not just for our valued customers – but also for our brokers. With legacy lending systems and a growing broker channel, we identified the need to transform our loan processing systems to better support the growth of the Bank’s lending business, better serve our broker channel, and improve the overall customer experience. It’s simple for us – we are trying to make it as easy as possible for our customers and our brokers to work with us, and this digital transformation is making that job a lot easier. Our collaboration with Sandstone Technology has helped us streamline our loan applications, improve turn-around times, and increase our loan approvals. It’s also enhanced and improved the partner experience, reduced operational risk and costs, and ensured an 80% reduction in reviewing declined applications,” said Kasehagen.

Sandstone Technology’s Poli Konstantinidis, Executive GM, Origination AI & ML added, “Lending today is not just the end-to-end journey from origination to settlement. It now requires the appropriate balance of an engaging user experience across all channels, with speed to value and responsible lending for the bank. This subsequently enables the bank to differentiate itself from its competitors”.