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ING Bank of Canada (ING DIRECT Canada)
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A faster, smoother and less-costly mortgage process
Since it opened its doors in 1997, ING Bank of Canada (ING DIRECT Canada) has grown to serve more than one
million clients, with $14CAD billion in assets under management. To enhance its edge in the DIRECT financial services
business, the Bank recently transformed the mortgage side of its business with a new Mortgage Application Processing
Solution (MAPS). This solution offers a fully integrated and streamlined approach to originating, underwriting, fulfilling,
and funding mortgage applications.
Challenge
Buying a home is one of the most significant financial commitments that Canadians make in their lives. It’s also often
a very stressful experience. People experience all kinds of time, economic and emotional pressures throughout the
buying cycle.
ING DIRECT wanted to improve the customer experience by simplifying and shortening the process of obtaining a
mortgage. It also wanted to get rid of all the paper; and help its own internal staff do their jobs more effectively. How?
The Bank decided to start from the ground floor up and completely rethink and redesign the way its mortgage
business worked.
Objectives
ING DIRECT wanted to build a new mortgage solution that would:
- Position the Bank to respond to rapid growth, without increasing costs, through faster processing and increased
staff productivity;
- Remove paper from the process; and
- Provide a scalable infrastructure.
The overriding goal was to provide a superior value proposition by simplifying the process of applying for a mortgage
and providing exceptional customer service.
Solution
ING DIRECT had previously outsourced most of its mortgage processing activities. It took client mortgage requests
and forwarded them on to trusted third parties. Now it wanted to bring all these processes back in-house, backed by a
best-in-class, end-to-end mortgage processing solution – the Mortgage Application Processing Solution (MAPS).
MAPS integrates and leverages several key systems in place at ING DIRECT. It is designed to:
- Accept mortgage applications from a number of channels, including the public Web site, a secure site for clients
only, telephone, paper and fax.
- Dynamically accept applications from brokers – a first for ING DIRECT.
- Dynamically integrate with the CRM system used at ING. This system captures all of the client-related
information needed to process a mortgage application.
Once a client submits a mortgage application, a complex set of workflow processes begin. Automated integration
points with Equifax, CMHC, and GE Capital allow the ING mortgage underwriters to quickly and easily assess
applications. During this time, the client can obtain up-to-date statuses and information about their application via phone,
Web, or their mortgage broker. What’s more, any ING staff member who needs to contact a client can do so without
lifting their hands from the keyboard.
Once an application has been evaluated, MAPS continues to provide ING with all the necessary tools to convey the
decision to the client. If approved, MAPS generates a commitment letter with a specific set of conditions provided by
the underwriter. To complete the process, the client will typically fax back some required documentation. MAPS
automatically images and associates these documents with the correct application. Once the client delivers all the
necessary papers and meets all the conditions stipulated in their commitment letter, the application moves to the final stage.
ING staff monitor the deal until funds are requested and sent.
Innovative use of technology
In keeping with the company’s philosophy of offering simple financial products directly to empowered consumers,
MAPS has enabled ING DIRECT Canada to simplify the process of obtaining a mortgage dramatically. Benefits include:
- Increased conversion rates 50 percent in six months;
- Cut time required to underwrite a deal by over 200 percent. Where a typical mortgage application once
took almost an hour to assess, it now takes less than 15 minutes to arrive at a decision. The time to process a
mortgage has dropped from one week to a maximum of 48 hours. Most applications are processed within one
business day;
- Increased underwriter productivity 200+ percent while mortgage application volumes have increased over 100
percent. ING has been able to redeploy resources from underwriting to fulfillment-related tasks; and
- Eliminated third-party service fees.
For ING DIRECT Canada, striving to be number one in the Direct Financial Services world means providing a great
customer experience each and every time. It also means finding better and simpler ways of doing business. MAPS enables
ING DIRECT Canada to do both.
"Our customers tell us we have taken a lot of the stress out of buying a home by getting answers back to them so
quickly," explains Brenda Rideout, CIO & SVP of Information Technology, ING DIRECT. "At the same time, because we
spend less time processing paperwork, we can spend more time providing people with the services and support they
need to make good financial decisions."
A 2004 CIPA Winner!
For its exceptional and innovative application of Information Technology to solve real-world business problems and
bring greater benefit to all its stakeholders, ING DIRECT Canada was awarded a 2004 Canadian Information Productivity
Award of Excellence in the Customer Care category.
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