Traditional B2B lending is slow and very manual, often requiring lenders to spend a lot of time reconciling accounts and wrangling spreadsheets. These manual processes and fragmented systems make it hard for lenders to scale and for businesses to get the funding that they need.

But that's changing. Modern lenders are embracing the use of API-first banking and as a result, getting access to real-time data and infrastructure to make lending faster, more accurate, and more efficient for everyone involved.

Automation replaces manual work

The old way of lending means spending hours on basic tasks like manually reconciling payments in collection accounts‍—‌pooled bank accounts for collecting payments from all borrowers. This needs to be done everyday in order to generate loan tapes (reports on your loan book and outstanding payments) for senior funders and credit providers, track ongoing performance, and stay on top of collections. It isn't just time-consuming‍—‌this impacts how much a lender can disperse quickly due to the heavy operational lift on the lender and their credit providers.

Griffin is helping to automate these core processes, letting lenders configure account structures that match their exact business model and payment flows. Lenders can programatically open and manage as many bank accounts as they need, including individual borrower accounts for collection and accounts for each funder to manage pay-outs and simplify reconciliation. Set-up of a Lenders desired account structures can be done in 6-8 weeks with automated onboarding and an API integration.

With Griffin's API, lenders have the ability to give real-time visibility into cash flows and repayments for funding partners (or their own balance sheet). They can even give their credit fund real-time read-only access to their ledger extracts and balances.

This level of visibility helps lenders to scale operations efficiently without proportionally increasing their back-office staff and frees up staff time for higher-value work like relationship building and customer acquisition.

Real-time data enables better decisions

Instead of working with outdated information, lenders get immediate visibility into their operations via Griffin’s API. Lenders can:

• monitor portfolio performance as it happens, not days or weeks later.
• make faster, more confident lending decisions based on current information.
• update risk assessments continuously using live data.
• report accurately at any point in time.
• easily spot trends and patterns that might affect lending decisions.

Most importantly, real-time visibility lets lenders respond quickly to changes‍—‌whether that's adjusting terms for a struggling borrower or expanding credit for a growing business.

Modern underwriting gets better banking support

Today's lenders have moved beyond basic credit checks. They assess borrowers using a rich mix of data and modern underwriting tools. This includes leveraging

• open banking data to see actual cash flow and financial health.
• marketing analytics software to predict business growth and customer acquisition.
• credit scoring that considers multiple risk factors from companies like Lending Metrics and Ezbob.
• credit policy monitoring software like Taktile.
• real-time transaction monitoring for ongoing performance assessment.
• embedded lending platforms like Liberis to manage operations.

These tools have transformed lending from days-long manual processes into quick, automated ones. But there's been a crucial missing piece: the right banking infrastructure.

At its core, lending relies on collecting repayments‍—‌something that can only happen through bank accounts. Traditional banks weren't built for this new world of automated lending. Their legacy systems and manual processes create bottlenecks that slow everything down.

This is where API-first banking makes the difference. When your bank's infrastructure is built for automation, it works seamlessly with modern lending tools. The result is faster, more efficient lending operations that scale as your business grows without the need to grow your back office.

API-first banking also creates an opportunity for the automated flow of this data between various tools, eliminating the manual work and errors that come with moving data between separate systems.

Better lending means better business

All this technology serves one purpose: helping businesses get the funding they need, when they need it. Modern lending powered by digital banks creates real benefits for borrowers:

• Quick decisions: loan decisions in minutes, not weeks
• Custom solutions: funding that matches your business model and cash flow
• Less hassle: reduced paperwork and no need for manual processes
• Faster funding: money in your account quickly, when you need it
• Better terms: credit terms based on your actual business performance

When lenders have better banking, businesses get better funding. The future of lending isn't just about making things more efficient for lenders‍—‌it's about making funding more accessible and useful for the businesses that need it.