Better Choice Home Loans has announced an overhaul of the verification of identity process for its gold product range.
The non-bank mortgage lender is replacing paper forms with a combined digital mortgage and VOI solution so it can deliver a more streamlined experience for brokers and customers.
The technology combines purpose-built mortgage digital signing solution KWIL and digital VOI solution Livesign into a single seamless digital signing process in real time.
Better Choice Home Loans director Allan Savins (pictured) said delivering this technology to its clients reinforced its commitment to continually enhance the overall customer experience, without introducing unnecessary risk into the business.
“While the signing of documents electronically and conducting a digital verification of identity are not new practices in their own right, they are usually done at separate points in time, which presents significant opportunity for mortgage fraud,” Savins said.
“We were waiting for the right solution before we made the move online.”
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Savins said KWIL powered by Livesign combined digital signatures with government-issued photo ID and real-time facial biometric checks.
“It provides certainty about who is behind the keyboard or device at the time of signing,” he said.
“It becomes a verification of signer process rather than just another digital verification of identity. It’s critical that we know with clarity and certainty that the person behind the keyboard signing the mortgage documents is who they say they are, given the high value risks for us as the lender.”
Simon Duke, managing partner of Better Choice’s legal firm Galilee Solicitors, said the non-bank lender’s move to introduce KWIL powered by Livesign reinforced its understanding of the need to deliver a seamless on-line customer experience while enhancing the integrity of the mortgage signing process.
“The impacts of COVID-19 and social distancing measures have expedited the digitisation of the financial services sector; however the trend until now has been for industry participants to move the signing process and the VOI process online as separate processes, undertaken by the end customer at different points in time,” Duke said.
“Better Choice Home Loans are leading the way in bringing these two processes together digitally.”
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Duke said if you were to ask customers whether they would prefer to be involved in closing out their mortgage settlement once or twice, they would choose once every time.
“Our solution is the only one which achieves that and we expect customers to rate their lender higher on customer service as a result,” he said.
“In fact, the entire process is done by the customer in their own time, and brokers don’t even have to worry about the VOI process at all at the closing stage.”
KWIL is available to Better Choice gold customers from April 2022 for electronic signing of mortgage documents, powered by Livesign as the digital verification solution.
