Executive summary

The need for digitization in the mortgage industry and beyond continues to grow, with customers expecting transparent, paperless and quick processes. That's why Triodos Bank opted for Oper's mortgage software, enhancing their digital mortgage journey and realizing key benefits for both the bank, the advisors and most importantly the borrowers.

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At a glance:

• Increased conversion rates by 27%
• Increased trust and mitigated borrower anxiety by guiding more than 1.000 borrowers through an online channel in the first 12 months after launch
• Increased efficiency of account managers and internal operations resulting in reduced operational costs

Objectives

Triodos Bank started its journey with Oper with 3 main objectives in mind:

• To significantly grow their direct mortgage production to reduce their customer acquisition costs
• To roll out a digital channel for their mortgage distribution
• To provide account managers with the tools to work more efficiently

While addressing these three key ambitions for Triodos Bank, it was essential to consider both their brand value and their specific sustainability requirements related to the collateral and the projects they finance. Triodos Bank exclusively finances housing projects that integrate ecological and social values. The more energy-efficient a home is, and the more social inclusion factors are included in a project, the greater the reduction in the base interest rate will be.

How did Triodos Bank leverage Oper’s solutions to achieve its goals?

In order to reach these objectives, Triodos Bank and Oper opted to launch a digital mortgage channel to streamline the home-buying journey for prospective borrowers. The implementation is based on two main Oper product components, covering the following steps to enhance both borrower convenience and advisory efficiency:

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1. Oper Borrower Journey

• Affordability Calculator: Triodos Bank now offers a self-service Affordability Calculator, accessible via their website and other digital channels, allowing prospects to explore how much they can afford or whether they can afford a specific property and subsequently select the (simulated) mortgage product that best suits their needs.
• Digital Onboarding & Secure Account Creation: After using the calculator, prospective borrowers can create a secure account with 2-factor authentication, progressing smoothly to the application stage, where they input additional information to refine the financial assessment.
• Automatic Loan Triage: Oper's platform supports Triodos’ lending standards with automated pre-acceptance checks, including LTV and DTI thresholds and the sustainable nature of the project, ensuring loan eligibility and expediting approvals.
• Document Management & Advisory Integration: Prospects can digitally upload documents specific to their loan, enabling quicker reviews. Loan advisors are notified in the Loan Advisor Suite, where they can view incoming leads, access their data, and prioritize based on pre-scoring results. Advisors can then provide tailored consultations and generate a loan request form, which the borrower can sign to finalize the application.

2. Oper Hybrid Advisory

• Lead Notification & Overview: Advisors are alerted to new leads in the Advanced Mortgage Planer, where they can view borrower data and uploaded documents.
• Lead Prioritization: A pre-scoring engine automatically triages leads, helping advisors focus on high-priority prospects.
• Advisory & Simulations: Advisors offer tailored consultations and simulations to assist borrowers with specific project needs.
• Ready Application: once a loan offer is chosen, advisors can guide borrowers to collect any outstanding information, complete any outstanding information, and prepare the loan request for signing.
• Seamless Integration: The final underwriting decision is made within Triodos Bank’s existing systems, with seamless data transfer via Lender CRM and Core Banking Integration.

This streamlined journey reduces time-to-yes and optimizes conversion rates by blending digital convenience with personalized support, ensuring an efficient and customer-focused process from start to finish.

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Key results

After a  tailored onboarding process, Oper’s solution  went live with Triodos Bank in Q1 2023. The number of leads coming from this online channel in the first months, significantly surpassed the expectations of the bank. This, while not increasing marketing budgets. Further, positive feedback came from account managers and bank’s management in terms of volume, lead quality and overall efficiency within the origination process.

Conclusion

Triodos Bank's partnership with Oper has helped the bank focus more on direct distribution of their mortgage production, generate more high-quality leads digitally, and reduce the manual workload of account managers, allowing them to focus more on advisory and building up client relationships. The success of Triodos Bank's digital mortgage journey with Oper clearly illustrates the benefits of a digitized mortgage process and the importance of having the right partner to achieve business goals confidently.

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