AWS Marketplace

How KeyBank optimizes lending decisions using cloud solutions

A 2022 Forbes report found that 78 percent of US adults prefer to bank using a mobile app or website. Lenders are eager to satisfy their customers’ online banking preferences but face challenges in digitally transforming the loan application process. These challenges include entrenched manual processes, legacy systems, and a need for deeper personalization in digital interactions.

We recently led a webinar to explore how financial service organizations use cloud solutions to overcome these challenges. Industry leaders from KeyBank joined me to share how KeyBank transformed its mortgage operations and built stronger customer relationships.

This post highlights key learnings from KeyBank’s cloud journey and the trends shaping the mortgage lending landscape. View the Optimize lending decisions using cloud solutions webinar for the full discussion, which includes an insightful Q&A session.

Trends shaping the mortgage lending landscape

We opened the webinar with a discussion of how mortgage lending is evolving. Trends changing how financial services institutions like KeyBank are doing business include:

  • Personalization – Institutions are deepening customer targeting and personalization. For example, lenders analyze third-party datasets to identify and engage customers searching for a new home.
  • Integration with an ecosystem of service providers – Mortgage lenders are embedding third-party products into the digital customer journey to centralize and streamline the home buying process. These include identity verification, insurance, and notary solutions. Cloud technologies make it easier to connect external services across the customer journey.
  • Credit risk management through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) – Underwriters are employing advanced data modeling techniques to make credit risk decisions and consistently identify fraud.

KeyBank redefines the mortgage experience with Blend

KeyBank is a super-regional bank with approximately 1,000 retail branches across 15 northern states in the United States of America. The financial institution wanted to deliver the modern digital experience its clients expect without sacrificing customer relationships.

“We are very much a relationship bank,” said Ken Raskin, Senior Vice President of Home Lending Innovation for KeyBank. “Our loan officers focus on offering guidance to help clients make the right financial decisions.” Ken went on to explain, however, that loan officers were spending too much time performing manual processes such as data entry.

KeyBank decided to digitize its loan application process to relieve loan officers of time-consuming administrative tasks and increase overall operational efficiency. The outstanding question was how KeyBank could accomplish digital transformation while preserving—and even enhancing—its advice-driven customer service model. For the answer, KeyBank turned to Blend.

Blend helps KeyBank drive engagement and efficiency

“As we embraced digital transformation, it was important to implement a best-in-class user experience,” said Kristin Boyle, Director of Operations Transformation for KeyBank. “It was equally important that this user experience plug seamlessly into our core systems.”

Blend checked both boxes for KeyBank. Blend offers a mortgage platform in AWS Marketplace that streamlines the loan process from application to close.

On the front end, Blend provides KeyBank’s clients with a secure portal to upload data and documents at their convenience. The portal also reflects real-time loan status updates. Blend integrates with KeyBank’s loan origination system on the backend, driving operational efficiency downstream.

KeyBank uses Blend’s out-of-the-box features to enhance customer experience and employee efficiency, including:

  • Unique landing pages and application links for loan officers to help clients onboard with the appropriate officer
  • Automated emails that embed educational videos and other materials to familiarize the client with the loan process
  • Intuitive workflows that prompt clients for required documentation as the client’s unique lending scenario unfolds
  • Integrations with major financial institutions for obtaining and updating bank statements

Tangible benefits of KeyBank and Blend’s strong partnership

KeyBank has modernized its loan application processes through its partnership with Blend and realized tangible benefits. “We are very keen on measuring the impact of our initiatives, and we are thrilled with the results,” enthused Kristin.

KeyBank’s clients are more satisfied, and its employees are processing applications faster, as shown by the following metrics:

  • KeyBank’s net promoter score (NPS) for Blend-originated loans is 96 – This represents nearly a two-fold increase compared to loans not originated from Blend, which have an NPS of 54.
  • Application-to-close cycles decreased by an average of 17 days for Blend-originated loans – KeyBank now closes more loans for its clients within a 30-day window.
  • The application completion rate is 83 percent for clients who start an application through Blend – 50 percent of completions are done outside of KeyBank’s business hours, freeing its loan officers from taking mortgage applications over the phone.

About AWS Marketplace and next steps

How can your organization modernize its processes and embrace cloud technology trends like those discussed in the webinar?

AWS Marketplace has a wide variety of financial services solutions to help financial institutions modernize their infrastructures. AWS Marketplace is a curated digital catalog that makes it easy for you to find, buy, deploy, and manage third-party software, services, and data. It offers quick, easy, and secure deployment, flexible consumption and contract models, and streamlined procurement and billing operations. More than 330,000 organizations, large and small, use AWS Marketplace monthly to accelerate digital transformation and improve efficiencies across their enterprises.

Independent research from Forrester estimates it takes half the time to find, buy, and deploy a solution through AWS Marketplace compared to other sales channels.

Visit Financial Services Solutions in AWS Marketplace to learn more about the financial services industry (FSI) cloud solutions available in AWS Marketplace.

View Optimize lending decisions using cloud solutions to learn more about the topics discussed in this post.

Author bio

Shaheen Kanda is the Financial Services and Insurance Leader for AWS Technology Partnerships. Before joining AWS, she founded two fintech startups and spent a decade working as a leveraged finance banker in New York City.