Bank Australia was founded in 1957 as the CSIRO Co-operative Credit Society. In 2011, they joined 71 credit unions and co-operatives to become Australia’s first customer-owned bank. 

In 2015, Bank Australia was formed. Unlike traditional financial institutions, Bank Australia is owned by its depositors and borrowers, not by external shareholders.

As a result, Bank Australia prioritises positive change for its customers and community, offering competitive rates and individualised solutions.

To shorten application approval times, remove unnecessary costs, and improve the overall customer experience, Bank Australia adopted two software solutions: Fortiro and FileInvite.

1. Fortiro: A solution that automates fraud detection and income verification from common financial documents such as payslips.
2. FileInvite: An innovative document collection platform offering users a secure and intuitive document collection and storage portal. 
   

This case study explores how the collaboration with Fortiro and FileInvite has empowered Bank Australia to reduce operational costs and bottlenecks while enabling growth and a faster time to ‘yes’.

Addressing the Challenge: Document Collection and Verification

Bank Australia sought to streamline its processes to shorten decision times on customer loan applications, reduce loan origination costs, and improve the overall customer experience. 

Manual document processing and reviews of supporting documents as part of income and expense verification checks are traditionally labour-intensive manual tasks – and the bank recognised that tackling these time-consuming activities needed innovative technological solutions. 

Streamlining document collection and verification, while protecting the bank from fraudsters and liar-loans was a critical step in solving the challenge.

“Bank Australia strives to provide a high-quality customer experience through faster loan approvals. We needed to find a solution to resolve bottlenecks associated with manual document collection.

We were worried that introducing automation may create an environment for fraudsters to try to take advantage of processes that no longer involve human reviewers. So we knew we needed a holistic solution.”

Bill Psiharis, Manager – Mortgage Lending, Bank Australia

The Rise of Liar Loans and Fraudulent Loan Applications

Up to 65% of financial institutions in Australia and New Zealand have reported increased fraudulent activity. 

Current macroeconomic pressures increase the risk of loan fraud, as ‘increased interest rates exacerbate liar loans’ associated with financial hardship. 
Investment bank UBS recently advised of a “sustained increase in admitted factual misstatements coming from ANZ customers”.

Over half of the respondents (55 per cent) who took out a mortgage in the previous six months indicated that they had made misstatements on their mortgage application.

Solution: Hassle-free Document Handling with Fortiro and FileInvite 

Fortiro and FileInvite have teamed up to simplify document collection while offering real-time document verification and fraud detection. The collaboration automates all document-related aspects of the loan application process for lenders in Australia and New Zealand, facilitating faster growth for lenders by automating document collection, document fraud checks, and document-based income & expense verification. 

Seamless Document Collection with FileInvite

FileInvite’s client portal and features for automated file requests and reminders have eliminated guesswork and created a clear pathway for both customers and bank staff. 

FileInvite’s intuitive dashboard became a centralised hub for document requests, reviews, approvals, and verifications. As a result, different teams within Bank Australia could now work more closely together, eliminating bottlenecks and promoting effective communication. 

Clients now know exactly what supporting documents to send and when, with a seamless experience. Bank Australia reports that document collection and verification processes have become more transparent.

Automated Document Verification and Fraud Detection with Fortiro

FileInvite’s direct integration with Fortiro enables an instant fraud risk assessment, while simultaneously extracting relevant income and expense data from customer documents to the bank.

Fortiro delivers industry-leading document fraud checks in seconds by utilising a combination of advanced technologies such as analytics, image forensics, machine learning, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to validate the authenticity of payslips, bank statements, and other critical documents, detecting potential fraud with unprecedented accuracy. 

Fortiro also removes the need for humans to review supporting documents to verify the applicant’s income and expenses, enabling Bank Australia to use documents as part of the loan origination process without manual handling.

“Fortiro is on a mission to help lenders grow by preventing document fraud and eliminating the friction associated with document-based income verification. Every lender is looking for ways to improve decision times, reduce origination costs and improve the banker, broker and borrower experience. We’re excited to play a key role in meeting this objective in partnership with FileInvite.”  

Sean Quagliani, Co-Founder and CEO of Fortiro.

Results: Bank Australia Experiences Faster Loan Approvals and Less Fraud Risk

Through accelerated loan processes, fraud prevention and cost savings, Bank Australia’s internal operations have become more efficient to enable faster growth. 

1. Accelerated Loan Process 

By using FileInvite to simplify information collection, and automatically processing documents through Fortiro Protect for rapid document verification and risk assessment, as well as Fortiro Accelerate, for income and expense verification, documents can be processed in minutes without human intervention 

2. Fraud Prevention 

By leveraging Fortiro Protect, Bank Australia proactively mitigates the risk of fraudulent credit applications. The proven approach safeguards Bank Australia against ‘liar loans’ and financial losses and reinforces its reputation as a trusted and reliable financial institution. 

3. Cost Savings 

The collaboration between Fortiro and FileInvite translates into significant cost savings for Bank Australia. Automating document collection and verification reduces operational costs and resource allocation associated with manual document handling and reviews.

Freed from the burden of manual follow-ups, service requests, and lengthy document reviews and verification periods, Bank Australia can now focus its resources on strategic initiatives and providing direct, personalised customer support. 

Crucially, Bank Australia has significantly reduced its average “Time to Decision” metric, demonstrating a substantial improvement in operational speed and efficiency.