Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Mortgage Solutions. Read the original article for full details.
Digital success should be measured by freed-up time, not speed – Purewal
Paul Purewal, head of intermediary relations at Dudley Building Society, argues that the industry is measuring digital success by the wrong standard. Writing in Mortgage Solutions, he says brokers rarely ask for more technology. What they want is less time spent on administration, clear communication, better visibility of their cases and access to the right person when they need to speak to someone.
Looking beyond speed
Purewal says technology has tended to be judged by how quickly it moves a case through a process or how many features a platform offers, but he does not believe these are the best measures of success. In his view, the real test is whether technology has created more opportunity for brokers and underwriters to apply their experience where it genuinely makes a difference.
He notes that specialist lending has never been driven by process alone, and that conversations with underwriters often reveal things a checklist never could. Technology, he argues, should not try to replace those moments. Instead, it works best around them: handling repetitive tasks, reducing unnecessary duplication and making information easier to access, so creating capacity for people to use their judgement.
Dudley's origination platform
That philosophy shaped Dudley Building Society's own mortgage origination platform, which has been available to the whole of the market for around six weeks. Purewal says the objective was not simply to digitise another part of the lending journey, but to remove avoidable administration, improve visibility for brokers and give colleagues more opportunity to focus on work that benefits from experience rather than process.
One example is the handling of referred decisions in principle: what previously took around 45 minutes can now be reviewed in as little as three minutes. Purewal says the real value of those saved minutes is that underwriters can spend more time discussing complex cases with brokers and reaching considered lending decisions.
Keeping people at the centre
On artificial intelligence, Purewal describes it as another tool that can help remove routine work and organise information more effectively, but says he does not see it replacing the judgement at the heart of specialist lending. If anything, he suggests, the more capable technology becomes, the more important it is that experienced people are free to focus on the decision.
For UK letting agents and inventory professionals watching the wider property ecosystem, the message is a familiar one: technology should reduce admin burden and improve visibility, not displace professional judgement.
Source: Mortgage Solutions