Santander UK has slashed inefficiency by digitising multiple manual processes around administering its commercial, corporate and small-to-midsize business customers.
According to e-agreement software provider DocuSign, the bank has reduced the work involved by using DocuSign Agreement Cloud — cutting the number of forms used across products by 97% and the time taken for new customers to open an account by 83%.
Jonathan Holman, head of digital transformation at Santander Corporate & Commercial, said: “Collecting signatures while completing front and back office processes enables us to offer a customer experience that outperforms even digital-first banks.”
Digitising manual processes involved in onboarding and time-to-cash has meant customers can both open new accounts and access funds without going to a branch or send physical paperwork.
A new customer previously had to fill out editable PDFs that had to be printed and signed before being physically returned to a local branch, taking 12-25 days to action, according to DocuSign.
Now, a single form is filled out and submitted digitally, and that initial form triggers back-office processes to approve and open the new account.
“If we remove 30% of the time required to negotiate and execute a loan through automation, parallel processing and e-signature, that time gets channeled back into customer relationships,” Santander’s Holman said.
Santander UK’s SME, commercial and corporate banking teams serves businesses turning over £500,000 to £500 million a year and sought to improve the customer experience via digitisation of inefficient manual processes, according to DocuSign.
Read the full customer story on DocuSign’s website.
( Photo by Victória Kubiaki on Unsplash )
