Small Business Lending
How might we digitize data collection to expedite the underwriting process to relieve Small Business Lending during a global pandemic?
Financial Services
Overview
As a top-10 Small Business Administration lender, KeyBank helped thousands of businesses quickly gain funds through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a federally provided, forgivable loan that covers certain business costs. The impacts of COVID-19 led to a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill signed into law in March 2020 and set aside $349 billion for a new small-business loan program.
These funds helped cover certain business costs related to payroll expenses, the continuation of group health care benefits, lease payments, mortgage interest payments, utility payments, and interest on other pre-existing debt obligations.
Limited loan funds
Funds shared across financial institutions created a critical urgency to set up our application process to start queuing loan applications to secure funds.
Track and review applications
Loans are not guaranteed and are on a first-come, first-served basis, so it's important to be able to quickly funnel eligible clients.
Leveraged an existing framework
Evaluated current systems in place and expanded capabilities to support new application requirements.
Loan progress tracker
A loan progress tracker with a series of emails and a dynamic page was introduced to create transparency for clients and reduce the increase in call volume.
Goals
Our initial focus was to quickly define some requirements to work as agile as possible with our clients in mind.We prioritized our work in two quadrants, with my focus primarily on the experience trigger and actions needed by underwriters, and eligible clients.
The trigger
As a banker, I need to be able to initiate an invitation through our Small Business Originations platform so that I can queue loan applications for our prospect and existing clients.
Required actions
As an eligible small business client, I need to be able to add information regarding my business so that I can understand my eligibility for this relief opportunity.
The loan
For businesses and non-profits with 500 or fewer employees, eligibility for loans may result in an opportunity for complete loan forgiveness. Any amount not forgiven is converted to a term loan.
The variable reward
The loan amount is less than $10,000,000 or 2.5x the total average monthly payroll costs incurred one year before origination. Monthly payments differ between 6 and 12-months.
Constraints
While the 1-week turnaround proved to be the greatest constraint, some of the challenges along the way include:
Critical
Evolving requirements
The details of the loan program continued to evolve through design and development requirements, creating confusion and a need to pivot constantly.
Risk
Learning in production
There was no opportunity to test and validate; we had to learn from customer calls, live production data, and an optional feedback survey on our digital experience.
Ideation
By collaborating with business and developer associates, we were able to envision our initial communications for invitations to apply for the paycheck protection program.
Invitation email
Design sketch for biggest opportunity.
Loan application tracker
A series of automated emails to communicate status updates to prospect loan borrowers.
Features
Our biggest feature with this release was retrofitting an existing enrollment experience for commercial clients and modifying the application to be specific to the Paycheck Protection Program.
Employee admin portal
We implemented a Client Relationship Manager (CRM) to invite clients to apply for the loan.
Account Summary
We integrated authenticated client-facing access to the loan application.
Email communications
We supported client communications with updates on the status of their loan application.
Key screens
Sign on
Requires email validation for invite-only loan applications.
Loan offering selection
Cards are modular and display eligible offers to new and existing customers.
Loan detail
Business expenses can determine eligibility for loan relief.
Business information
Add information for up to 5 business owners.
Loan offering selection
Cards are modular and display eligible offers to new and existing customers.
Loan detail
Business expenses can determine eligibility for loan relief.
Business information
Add information for up to 5 business owners.
Identity verification
For security purposes, the application requires authorization for a loan application.
Document upload
Drag and drop or use native operating system upload feature.
Business information
Add information for up to 5 business owners.
Document upload
Drag and drop or use native operating system upload feature.
Loan confirmation
First of several automated communications regarding loan application status.
Impact
Over 40,000 loans processed.
Ranked #7
in nation
91%
click-through rate
28,000+
clients applied
$8 billion
in funding
Takeaway
This experience was truly rewarding in being able to keep work moving around the clock and handing off to offshort to continue at the end of a day, to then catch up on changes made overnight.
Lessons learned
- Establish clear communication channels especially in short-term engagements. Be intentional on what is chat vs email.
- Prioritize pace over perfection, remain nimble and iterative. Prioritize functionality then visuals.
- Be an advocate for users when presented with technology constraints.
Some potential next steps
- Deep analysis on 9% drop-off rate to understand if there are underlying opportunities.
- Accessibility testing to ensure microinteractions are compliant, especially patterns like document upload.
- Service blueprint for underwriting process to understand more on what is involved to streamline loan applications.
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