Delivering superior legal processes that enabled a regional US bank to beat the competition

The challenge

A regional bank on the west coast needed a competitive product to re-enter a particular segment of the financial services market. A large global bank dominated that segment and our client needed every advantage it could get. The General Counsel knew that the legal department could play a big role in creating this competitive advantage if it could implement a solution that allowed loan documents to be generated, negotiated and managed in a way that was customer friendly, flexible, consistent and cost effective. He turned to us to make this vision a reality.

Our Solution

Working with the our team, the bank’s legal team developed a semi-automated approach to generating and managing its loan documents that offered the best of automation- driven efficiencies, process-driven velocity, and legal ingenuity when that was required. The solution included a modular set of base documents and add-ons that the system used to create custom, compliant documents for each customer. Complementing this system is a process that allows the loan officers to rapidly escalate files for individual legal attention and customization where required – all in accordance with agreed fees and turnaround times. Industry SLAs are set at 3 days to turn the documents. With the new model, loan documents are generated in a matter of minutes and turned around to the borrower in 24 hours or less. All documents reside in the system allowing the bank to generate complete files for any account, at any time.

The Results

Now, six years into the program, the bank has grown into the leading provider of these types of services in the states of California, Oregon and Washington with a loan portfolio of over $700 million. It enjoys a reputation among its customers of being easy to do business with and the company holds the law department in high regard.