Why a branch loan took 40 minutes, and how we cut it to 5
The credit decision was never the slow part. A look at where the time went in a retail bank's branch lending flow, and what we changed.
· 2 min read
A retail bank came to us with a familiar complaint: opening an account and issuing a loan at a branch took up to 40 minutes per customer. Queues backed up, staff were stretched, and customers left before they were served.
The obvious guess was that underwriting was slow. It wasn’t.
Where the 40 minutes went
When we sat with branch staff and timed each step, the credit decision itself took a small share of the visit. Most of the time went to work around it:
- Re-typing details from identity documents into the core system
- Waiting on manual identity verification
- Collecting wet signatures on paper forms
- Only then starting the credit bureau check
Each step waited on the one before it. Nothing ran in parallel, and every hand-off was paper.
What we built
We replaced the paper path with one workflow that starts the moment the customer takes a queue token.
- Scan at the first desk. Identity documents are read by OCR, so nobody types them in.
- Confirm the person. Facial recognition checks that the customer matches the document.
- Query the bureau directly. The credit bureau check runs from the same screen, with no separate system.
- Sign digitally. Signatures are captured on screen, so there are no forms to file.
By the time the customer sits down with a loan officer, their data is verified and the underwriting decision is ready.
The result
Loan issuance dropped from 40 minutes to under 5, and the branch went fully paperless.
The lesson
If a regulated process feels slow, time it before you redesign it. In our experience the delay is rarely in the decision. It is in the hand-offs, re-keying and waiting around the decision, and those are the parts software fixes well.
FAQ
Was the credit decision itself changed?
No. The underwriting rules stayed the same. The time saved came from removing re-keying, manual checks and paper signatures around the decision.
Which checks moved to the first desk?
Identity document scanning with OCR and facial recognition against the document. The credit bureau query runs from the same screen, so it no longer waits for paperwork.
Is the branch fully paperless now?
Yes. Identity capture, verification and signatures are all digital.
For more on this kind of work, see our banking and fintech page.