The fundamentals of banking are evergreen; lend money to create value. How banks accomplish this goal productively and profitably, however, is changing. Today, success increasingly relies on an FI’s ability to strengthen the customer relationship.
This is one reason relationship lending, a strategy in which institutions seek to build long term relationships with their customers by getting to know their individual needs and situations, is more important than ever before.
Relationship lending is an increasingly effective strategy because it helps institutions develop a deeper, more personal relationship with their customers, giving them the ability to guide customers through lending decisions and loan options that are specifically tailored to their individual needs. Rather than purely transactional, this approach is highly consultative, allowing FIs to build relationships with their customers that can last a lifetime.
Why relationship lending, and why now?
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, customer needs and expectations have risen tremendously. FIs around the globe have adapted to these expectations by increasing their digital capabilities and offering remote banking interactions.
Customer expectations, however, don’t stop there. In addition to fast and convenient digital perks, customers also want personalized experiences and bespoke services.
To meet their demands, FIs of all sizes are embracing relationship lending as an approach that provides the best of both worlds: customers receive personalized attention that offers better value, while bankers learn more about their customers’ needs over the course of their lives. The result? Better lending decisions, which benefits both the customer and the FI.
“You need to have the right system, the right strategy, the right people and the right technology to help build these relationships.” – Joel Pruis, Senior Director, Cornerstone Advisors
Positive customer experiences and powerful banking relationships don’t appear out of thin air—in today’s digital world, they start with the right technology. Customers want to interface with efficient systems that already have their information—they don’t have the time or desire to repeat themselves while yet another banker rekeys their information. Institutions employing state-of-the-art cloud-based solutions like the nCino Bank Operating System are able to solve this problem efficiently and effectively by storing data in a single, secure place, streamlining the customer experience. This is just one example of how technology can be leveraged to help meet the needs of customers, so they don’t have to go elsewhere to obtain specialized services and loans.
In the recent webinar “Relationship Lending: Measuring Value vs. Volume,” industry experts from Cornerstone Advisors and nCino explain how the stakeholder experience can be enhanced by evolving your FI’s lending process to achieve simple and connected processes, best practices to digitally manage and monitor your institution’s portfolios and associated risk, and the key steps to realize higher capital ROI.
To learn more, download this on-demand webinar now.