Sprnt-ing towards innovation in commercial lending

Q. What does technology innovation in the commercial lending landscape currently look like?

It’s fair to say that the commercial space is underinvested, particularly when you compare it to residential mortgages. I think that has to do with the mortgage offering being “productised” a little bit earlier. It is easier to define mortgages in terms of a series of workflows or a product and therefore much easier to digitise.

Commercial is more complex and at times more nebulous. As a result, I think there was always this perception that something slightly less complex should be digitised first.

Commercial is not just one thing, there’s so much diversity. If you try and throw a blanket over the whole thing, it could be overwhelming and, I think historically, that’s been the problem.

What’s exciting, though, is that residential mortgages have provided a roadmap, which is easy to follow.

Q. Sprnt launched in April 2024, with you leading the way as CEO. What are you hoping to achieve?

I was a broker myself for six years and I’ve been in various lending institutions since then. But, as I’ve gotten to know the many players in the industry (whether it be brokers, aggregators, and other lenders), the one thing that was always clear to me was this underinvestment in technology.

We’re looking to become a specialist commercial lending gateway. So, my ultimate goal is to try and get as much commercial lending connectivity out there for brokers, their borrowers, and for lenders.

Our core audience is lenders and insurers and helping them with the front end, the origination, and tools brokers use.

Disruption is not a driver for us; we’re about empowering and working with the whole industry, existing players, or new to optimise it instead.

Q. What does Sprnt do?

We are a pioneering technology vendor offering a suite of products and services via our Commercial Lending Gateway and Portal. Our innovative platform enables lenders to drive targeted traffic through personalised portals and seamlessly integrates gateway traffic with brokerages, private credit providers, and lenders.

In addition, our strategic partner, Simplicity Loans and Advisory, allows Sprnt to also serve individual brokers and aggregators at scale with Simplicity’s elite commercial expertise.

By simplifying and digitising intricate commercial applications, Sprnt enhances underwriting acceptance rates; streamlines operations; and reduces the cost-to-income ratio, empowering lenders to excel in today’s fiercely competitive market. Our suite of products and enterprise services not only benefit our lender clients but also enrich the commercial and non-commercial broker communities they serve.

Q. Do you think a digital end-to-end offering is achievable in commercial finance?

I definitely do, not for all products, but for certain commercial lending products, particularly those that suit broker distribution.

A residential broker can self-serve, do a fact-find, and then apply that against a loan matching service. But one of the challenges in commercial is that a broker would typically call a business development manager (BDM) with a scenario and then, an application is lodged, the first person to receive it is not typically that same BDM. So, this relationship manager will then try and work out whether a deal actually flies.

BDMs and RMs are an expensive resource ... In previous roles, my teams could take 50 or 60 scenario calls a week and they often don’t go anywhere. So, before the deal’s been assessed or verified, a lender has two or three of their most expensive resources trying to cobble it altogether.

So, I think there’s an opportunity to reduce the cost as a lender but also increase broker penetration and therefore expand the market as a whole. By making that process easier, even just for a handful of products to begin with, it would dramatically improve the cost efficiency or reduce costs entirely.

Previously, tech was seen as an opportunity to steepen the growth curve, whereas now, I see it as an important imperative in reducing the cost of serving the commercial space.

Tune in to hear more!

You can find out more about Sprnt and how it is accelerating the commercial lending landscape in the Mortgage Business Spotlight podcast here: