A second-tier lender has introduced a new digital document signing service that promises to reduce time, complexity, errors and even paper usage.
Bankwest announced yesterday that its new digital signing service will be implemented across all home loans, bringing benefits to both brokers and customers.
Currently the lender says it takes “around 13 days” for a new home loan to be made ready for settlement. With the new digital signing service, this can be reduced to less than four working days for new home loans and to within 24 hours for increases to existing loans.
Additionally, the move will reduce Bankwest’s paper usage by 2.3 million pieces of paper per year, which the bank calculates to be the equivalent of 760 trees and 57 tonnes of CO2.
To date, the service has been rolled out incrementally to Bankwest’s proprietary lenders and the wider broker channel and, according to Andrew Chanmugam, executive general manager of customer experience, Bankwest is “proud to be one of the first in Australia” to offer digital signing.
“Customer needs are changing fast and we’re prioritising investment in our digital and broker offering to ensure we can continue to meet customer and community expectations. E-signing enables customers to sign and return their documents in a matter of hours and the e-signature can even be made on a smart phone; it’s simply a better experience for customers,” he said.
Seconds after a new home loan is confirmed, e-documents will be sent to the broker for review and then to the customer for e-signing. The new service was partly based on broker feedback, which head of third-party banking Ian Rakhit said played an important part in the R&D process.
“Our investment in digital signing gives brokers much greater visibility over exactly which documents have been issued and when,” Rakhit said.
“In addition to the faster turnaround time, the new secure service maintains an electronic audit trail – a key request from brokers – and allows for faster amendments if any errors are found,” he added.
