How a $5B Bank Modernized Digital Lending

Jim Marous (00:10):

Welcome to a special eight-part series of the Banking Transformed Podcast recorded at MeridianLink LIVE in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm your host, Jim Marous.

Jim Marous (00:19):

During this series of episodes, we dive deep into the world of digital transformation in the financial services industry. We speak with the executive from a diverse range of financial institutions, each of whom has embarked on a unique digital transformation journey to become more future ready and responsive to the changing needs of their customers.

Jim Marous (00:38):

We explore the strategies, challenges, and lessons learned by these forward thinking organizations as they navigate the complex landscape of digital transformation.

Jim Marous (00:48):

Whether you're a financial services professional, a FinTech entrepreneur, or simply interested in the future of banking, this series provides you with valuable insights and inspiration as we explore the cutting edge of digital transformation in the banking industry. We hope you enjoy these candid conversations with organizations of all sizes.

Jim Marous (01:09):

Hi, Jim Marous from Banking Transformed Podcast in Nashville, Tennessee at MeridianLink LIVE today, where I'm interviewing Lynn Yznaga from Broadway Bank in San Antonio, Texas.

Jim Marous (01:23):

So, Lynn, before we start, tell me a little bit about your career path, and then tell me a little bit about Broadway Bank.

Lynn Yznaga (01:30):

Well, let's see. I should mark out the nursing career part. 2008, I think we all want to nix that from our career path.

Jim Marous (01:38):

You were in nursing when the mortgage crisis fell, not that-

Lynn Yznaga (01:41):

Because the mortgage crisis fell. But it's the same skillset.

Jim Marous (01:44):

You're helping mortgage lenders.

Lynn Yznaga (01:46):

Same skillset. Triage, find out their chief complaint, offer them solutions just like the OR.

Jim Marous (01:51):

I love it.

Lynn Yznaga (01:52):

Or ER. But yeah, I guess you could say I grew up in mortgage and consumer lending. Right out of school, got a great job with a local bank in Alabama where I kind of learned the ropes, if you will. Started credit underwriting and processing and mortgage.

Lynn Yznaga (02:09):

And that was after I discovered I didn't exactly love working in the retail branch environment, but I did find a love from that in doing lending. And so, I continued to grow as an underwriter, then got into management and then got further on into operations management.

Jim Marous (02:29):

So, you're really combining your passion for lending with the operational aspects, which timing is everything sometimes.

Lynn Yznaga (02:36):

It is.

Jim Marous (02:37):

And the reality is as we look at what's really going on under the surface right now, from improving the loan process, from improving the customer experience, from improving the new account openings on the retail side, what we're really trying to do is find ways to make banking simpler, banking better.

Jim Marous (02:53):

And in your case, especially in the lending process, if you don't get the back office right, the front office experience will either be fallible, it'll be bad, or it'll break. It depends on how we put this together.

Jim Marous (03:10):

So, as you're looking at banking today, and as you look actually really in the last four years, what has been the biggest change in the lending process from your perspective?

Lynn Yznaga (03:20):

Well, I'm sure you've heard this answer probably 2,000 times already, but digital growth. I mean, if you're not where your customers are and that's either in front of them face to face and in a branch setting, or hey, you might be at church or at a family outing and run into future clients.

Lynn Yznaga (03:40):

If you don't have your technology there available wherever they are, you might miss out on an opportunity.

Jim Marous (03:47):

So, when you're talking about that though, and you're moving to digital from what used to be a brand-based process.

Lynn Yznaga (03:52):

Yeah. Or a paper.

Jim Marous (03:54):

Yeah. Oh, God, it was all paper. It still is in many cases. When you look at that, the reality is in those times you are face-to-face with a consumer. You could credit unify in another way than just by numbers and technology.

Jim Marous (04:07):

But as you're looking at it now, what changes from a customer experience standpoint — yes, it's fast, but how do you bring those other elements to bear? What are you trying to do owning the lending process today to make it so the true experience rather than speed is there?

Lynn Yznaga (04:25):

Yeah. One thing is definitely taking the time to know your clients. Who is your client base? How do they like to communicate?

Lynn Yznaga (04:34):

And that's where, I mean, really having a good loan officer up front who does a great interview with the customer, who can bring that information then to the back office. That way we can provide either online tools and resources for them.

Lynn Yznaga (04:48):

We still have a lot of clients who prefer to come in and meet face to face. So, whatever their choice in communication, how they want that application process to go. They feel like they're part of it. They are making the choices.

Lynn Yznaga (05:03):

And I feel like that is what people seek these days. They want to be involved. They want to know what's going on at all points. So, again, whether it's digital or face-to-face, we want to be able to give every customer that same information.

Jim Marous (05:18):

So, it's interesting because you said this at the very early part of the conversation, that you want to be where the customer wants you to be, delivering the way that they want it to be delivered.

Jim Marous (05:27):

So, if a customer wants it to be in the branch, the digital part of it is probably still there but it's invisible because most organizations today build their digital platform and then roll it out to the branches in some digital way so that it's no worse.

Jim Marous (05:41):

But we used to take the branch process and whatever improvements we made on the branch, we took it to online, then maybe we put it to digital.

Jim Marous (05:49):

It's got to be the opposite way because people are going to go to the path of least resistance. But I'd prefer them be with the people they most want to be with. If I want to do it all with my friend the phone, I want to do it with my friend the phone. But I want to do it fast.

Jim Marous (06:03):

So, over the last four years, how's the experience from the customer standpoint changed from a speed and scale standpoint?

Lynn Yznaga (06:12):

Well, I'll tell you, a lot of customers that I talk to that have been through several home buying experiences, they've told me every time they do it, it seems to get worse. More documentation-

Jim Marous (06:25):

Or aware of it more. Yeah.

Lynn Yznaga (06:26):

That application itself went from what, a three, almost four pager to now, we have seven to nine pages, depending on how many applicants you have and how much additional information that you have to intake from that whole application process.

Lynn Yznaga (06:40):

So, just I mean, the documentation piece alone regulatory changes, of course, ability to repay all of that has gone into more of got to have more paper, more documents.

Lynn Yznaga (06:54):

But I would say from an application standpoint alone, so if I'm the consumer inputting an application, I think that we have a lot of tools now, that are intuitive. So, you can answer just a few questions and if you don't need to provide more information, it bypasses those sections and just makes it easier for the client.

Lynn Yznaga (07:13):

But for those difficult cases self-employed, you've got the people who hit every checkbox. So, you end up needing a lot more information in the application.

Lynn Yznaga (07:23):

But I will say just the way that we're able to cater to those situations and really personalize it based on everyone's scenario, that's been a big change for me. Because it used to be a one size fits all. You had to answer all the questions to get to the end.

Jim Marous (07:39):

And the copy machine took up as much time as the application did.

Lynn Yznaga (07:42):

Yes, absolutely.

Jim Marous (07:43):

Yeah. My last one was not that long ago, and it completely freaked me out that they're running all this paper for the machine having to replace the paper. You go, "What is wrong here?"

Jim Marous (07:54):

And the decision was made saying we wanted to find a company that could do digital lending processes. They viewed this as digital lending because certain parts of it were digital. I could input certain information digital, but everything that was an aberration, self-employed became a big pain in the butt.

Jim Marous (08:12):

So, when you look at what's going on today, you worked with MeridianLink and you have a loan operating system that basically streamlines the process very well. What have been the parts that have made the biggest impact on your organization since implementing this solution?

Lynn Yznaga (08:27):

Man, I've got quite a few, but I'll tell you the one that sticks out at me the most is we had, I would say roughly six or seven different applications that we were using bank-wide. We had an imaging system, we had an income calculation tool, vendors that we had separate sign ons for.

Jim Marous (08:48):

Same issues, whatever it may be, yeah.

Lynn Yznaga (08:49):

Absolutely. We had our core system. And with MeridianLink, we were able to really combine all of that information, get all that data in one spot. We're integrated with our vendors.

Lynn Yznaga (09:01):

So, it's, for me, I hate to use the term one stop shop, but that's really what it has become. Making it just so much easier. The processes have become so much more efficient and our turn time has drastically reduced. We were able to shave off at least six days from the purchase money process.

Lynn Yznaga (09:19):

And I mean, really it was, we had Excel spreadsheets that we were tracking processes on. So, like if a customer called and wanted to know where you at in the application, it was very hard to tell. You would have to visit Notepad, you would have to visit all of these different screens to see where are we in the application.

Lynn Yznaga (09:39):

And with MeridianLink Mortgage, it's all very centralized, very quick to get your hands on. The customers even have a tool through their online application where they can see where their application is at any given time.

Jim Marous (09:53):

So, you're answering the question before they're asked.

Lynn Yznaga (09:55):

I'm sorry.

Jim Marous (09:56):

No, that's great. No, no, no. I'm saying for the customer, not with me.

Lynn Yznaga (10:01):

I was like, “I'll take over. So, how long have you been doing podcasts?”

Jim Marous (10:04):

But what's happened is you're answering questions of the customer before they're even asked where you're saying you want to find out where it is in the process.

Jim Marous (10:14):

You want to find out exactly where this ... it's GPS. Again, I refer to that often in my podcast. The GPS financial services we're this far along in our journey. Oh, by the way, there may be a detour here because there's something that has happened along the way.

Jim Marous (10:28):

So, we're trying to make it simpler, but at the same time, you have to be risk sensitive. I'm not going to say risk averse because it's doesn't play very well anymore. But you have to be risk sensitive and compliance sensitive.

Jim Marous (10:40):

How do you personally balance the two to make it that when you're implementing new systems, new processes, new procedures, that you're not negatively impacting the risk side of it?

Lynn Yznaga (10:52):

Well, I will tell you, I don't know how many people brag on their compliance partners, but I have a pretty amazing team. So, we actually meet at least once a month.

Lynn Yznaga (11:03):

We have a compliance committee where we talk about what we are seeing, what are the trends in applications, and they're also, feeding back information to us. What's coming up next? Bi-merge credit. What? That was a new topic that just got introduced in our last meeting.

Lynn Yznaga (11:19):

And we also filter this. We have a once a month with all of the lines of business with the bank, where we're also, sharing what's going on in mortgage. I'm hearing what's going on in commercial.

Lynn Yznaga (11:30):

So, as I'm talking to clients, I can actually talk to them more holistically what to expect. Hey, I might be doing this loan for you for a mortgage, but they're also, looking for a car. I know I'm going to hand them to a sales partner that's going to take care of that.

Lynn Yznaga (11:44):

But I can speak intelligently. Is anything that I have going on in this mortgage transaction, how is that going to impact these other potential loan scenarios?

Lynn Yznaga (11:53):

But just staying up to date and really befriending your compliance partners, that is the ticket.

Jim Marous (12:01):

It's a surprise moment. Because we talk quite a bit on the podcast that invariably nobody wants the compliance person involved. You'd love to have the world without the compliance.

Lynn Yznaga (12:12):

Audits are not fun, but.

Jim Marous (12:13):

On the other hand, if you do it the back end, they'll always find something. Human nature says they're there for a reason. They'll prove that they're there for a reason. It's not malicious. It's the reality of humans.

Jim Marous (12:25):

If you bring them in the front end, which you're doing by having a communication process that says there'll be no surprise if something we're going to implement that you haven't already been part of the discussion as to why it's happening.

Jim Marous (12:36):

And I would imagine you get closer and closer, you get them involved in the process so there's no surprises at the end, which derails everything. That's why that's working.

Lynn Yznaga (12:46):

So, in implementation or really in our testing phase, when we were just getting our test cases together, I invited our compliance officer that handles mortgage to come and join us, be in the testing room. And she was so thankful to be a part of just the daily grind, to hear what we are going through and asking-

Jim Marous (13:07):

She's not the enemy anymore.

Lynn Yznaga (13:08):

Exactly. And as you're working through loan scenarios in the testing environment, she can raise her hand and say, “Where are we sending that appraisal notice? Where's your counteroffer?”

Lynn Yznaga (13:19):

She's thinking about things from the OCC aspect or mortgage audit aspect. What questions, what things are they going to be looking for as they're going through their checklist to make sure we're setting ourselves up for success? And so far so good, we're doing well.

Jim Marous (13:37):

So, we talk about the member experience a lot, so we're all focused. But we can't forget the employee experience. You're implementing things that are new, that are different, that are disruptive. How do you manage the employee experience so that they're not set off?

Jim Marous (13:55):

Because invariably, we all, in the back of our mind at least, think that AI is going to replace us all. How do you make it so that what you're doing from a digital perspective, from a back office automation and loan operating system perspective is not going to be disruptive to their lives beyond what they already think?

Jim Marous (14:13):

So, is it communication? How do you make it so that the employees don't derail the process?

Lynn Yznaga (14:20):

Obviously, communication is always super important but the best way to get someone on your side is to invite them into the battle.

Jim Marous (14:28):

Same logic.

Lynn Yznaga (14:29):

Yep, absolutely. So, we actually brought in some of our retail partners to bounce, how does this application look and feel to you? You guys are on the front end.

Lynn Yznaga (14:38):

We brought in loan officers that were part of the application intake experience. They were able to provide quick, immediate feedback on the spot. We were able to make changes.

Jim Marous (14:48):

They were going to benefit from the results.

Lynn Yznaga (14:49):

And they felt like they were part of the process. Their voice was heard, they had a seat at the table. And so, on the back end when we went live, it was absolutely the smoothest experience I've ever had with any rollout.

Lynn Yznaga (15:02):

And I was part of a pretty major rollout at my previous institution where we switched an LOS. I learned lots of things from there that I took to the MeridianLink project with Broadway Bank. And I will tell you, it went very, very smoothly.

Jim Marous (15:18):

But it's because again, nobody was left untouched ahead of time. They all had a vested interest in the outcome, even if they didn't really believe in all aspects of it. They had to play along because it's a team thing.

Jim Marous (15:30):

It's like, I think I used the analogy yesterday about a jury. You don't want that one person hanging out there going against what everybody else believes.

Jim Marous (15:37):

So, as much as this all sounds like mom and apple pie-

Lynn Yznaga (15:43):

Yeah. It's not really all we’re experiencing.

Jim Marous (15:45):

… there are challenges out there. What was your biggest challenge in the whole implementation of a new loan operating system?

Lynn Yznaga (15:52):

Let's see. Our biggest challenge was really just modifying our own internal processes. So, one thing that I learned in my first LOS implementation was don't make the system change to your process. Change your process around that system.

Jim Marous (16:12):

Oh, it's well put.

Lynn Yznaga (16:13):

So, going with an out of the box version without customization, start there. What can you do? Can you still meet all of your customer's needs? Because again, we want to put the customer at the forefront of everyone. Employees are still our customers. So, we want to make sure everybody has this great experience.

Lynn Yznaga (16:32):

But our process was clunky and looking back, it was a no-brainer to take a system that runs well. We interviewed several banks when we were looking at MeridianLink. And received a lot of positive feedback on the ease of use, how easy it was to maintain the system.

Lynn Yznaga (16:49):

There was not a lot of customizations. You don't have to do these constant lifts and testing every time something would change. And so, I took that to heart and said, "Okay, lesson learned from the first one. I'm just going to make some tweaks in the process."

Lynn Yznaga (17:04):

So, we put our process on a whiteboard, like right on wipe off board. And as we moved loans through the test system and test process, we moved our pieces around where this might have happened here, we now moved it here where it made more sense in the flow and how the system works.

Jim Marous (17:23):

You got out of your own way.

Lynn Yznaga (17:24):

Yes, absolutely.

Jim Marous (17:25):

I talk about this often. This was said by the president of Lemonade. The insurance company said the biggest hindrance to digital transformation is lazy mindsets that will not get out of their own way. Also, by a banker in Kenya said the biggest flaw to bank transformation is bankers can't get out of their own way.

Jim Marous (17:43):

And that is because we've not failed. I mean, we've made money every year in 99% of these cases. And the reality is, if it's not broke, don't fix it mindset doesn't play it anymore.

Jim Marous (17:53):

Now, does it mean you're going to go out of business next year? No. It's going to mean that you're getting to get more and more behind in what's going to be needed going forward. Yes.

Jim Marous (18:01):

So, when you look at a success story out of what you've gone through, is there any story or anything that comes to mind that you say, this kind of was pretty cool?

Lynn Yznaga (18:11):

Well, I will tell you, I had a couple of past clients that followed me from my previous institution over to Broadway, so I'd done mortgage transactions with them obviously before. And just going through the experience with them again, using our new LOS, they said, "Lynn, how is this the same thing that we just did eight, nine months ago?”

Jim Marous (18:38):

"Why were you holding this back from me in the past?"

Lynn Yznaga (18:40):

Right. And I was like, "It's not my fault, I swear, I swear." But just hearing it straight from the horse's mouth, the people that were trying to help in this process, just hearing their feedback was just, I mean, it kind of gave me chill bumps.

Lynn Yznaga (18:54):

But really my favorite thing, and I always get emotional, it doesn't matter how many years you've been in this business, when you hand the keys over to a first time home buyer, like I could turn on the waterworks on that. It makes your heart just kind of stand still because they're signing-

Jim Marous (19:11):

Because you take it for granted after the first time to a degree when you can do that first one. And it's something that they always envisioned but never thought was possible. And you don't know if they're crying because you're massively in debt where they weren't the day before but it's a real feeling.

Jim Marous (19:26):

And if you can sell that to your employees as you're putting people on a team and you say, "Here's what we're trying to achieve," that's something to take to the bank. And everybody finds those things that say, if I can buy into the vision of what's really happening here and how I can impact it yourself, it's pretty cool.

Jim Marous (19:48):

So, we looked at all this, when you're talking about the future, what do you see as the biggest change you think you're going to see in the near term that's going to really change the way we do business?

Lynn Yznaga (20:01):

I hate to even say this on camera and being miced, but the AI piece is kind of scary for, I still consider myself young, but as I hire people into my organization and they're about half my age, they speak of this and I'm like, "Oh, slow down. I'm not ready. I'm not ready."

Lynn Yznaga (20:21):

But again, that's why I'm here this week. I just sat through a keynote presentation this morning where he talked about gen AI-

Jim Marous (20:32):

From McKinsey, yeah.

Lynn Yznaga (20:32):

What to do, what not to do, how do you prepare? And it was a very calming experience for me. So, now, I feel like I'm not allergic to it. I'm ready for conversation. So, in meeting with my account rep with Meridian, that was one thing that I wanted to bring to the table.

Lynn Yznaga (20:52):

What is MeridianLink? How are you going to help me? Because I'm not scared to raise my hand and say I'm going to need help with this.

Lynn Yznaga (20:58):

I run a very small shop. We're about 5 billion in assets, but we're still a relatively small family owned bank. We're not a huge box bank with all the tools in the world. So, any help I can get is worth its weight in gold.

Lynn Yznaga (21:16):

And I'll tell you, the staff that I interact with almost daily just calling the tech help line when I need help, figuring out how something is calculated, just the customer experience that we receive has been incredible.

Lynn Yznaga (21:31):

But knowing that I have a partner to hold my hand through it and that you guys are a trusted organization that has people on staff who do this thing, I feel like I can put my trust in that and that I'm ready to take those next steps forward. So, I have a phone-

Jim Marous (21:50):

Probably found out this morning, the way to protect yourself become obsolete is to engage in the process and understand it and to learn from it.

Jim Marous (22:01):

The reality is if something displaces you, it's because you let it displace you. And we see a lot of that in the world today. That's what we're all fearful of, is something unlike us making us irrelevant in one way or the other.

Lynn Yznaga (22:16):

I have this conversation so many times.

Jim Marous (22:18):

What is amazing about Gen AI today is the best learning tool we have at our access. You can ask a question about what is the future of mortgage lending going to be in a world of generative AI and application of the human aspect? And keep on modifying the question to being deeper to what you're doing.

Jim Marous (22:36):

You'll be amazed at the answer you get back and how it makes you realize, I'm going to insert myself into this process. None of us are going to be infallible to the fact that if we let it go, it's just going to go away. It's not going to go away. Some aspect of it's going to happen.

Jim Marous (22:53):

I talk about digital twins where if you're a customer of your organization, that we're going to build something that's going to be more like you than you are to help us understand where we want to take you.

Jim Marous (23:04):

We're going to ask questions much more than ever before, but then capture the answers to eternity as opposed to, "Oh, I got the information. Okay, thank you very much." I put it to the side drawer. To be part of that integration ... this is a little pep talk for you if nothing else.

Lynn Yznaga (23:18):

I know, hold my hand.

Jim Marous (23:19):

And for bankers is that there's no reason why you can't be part of that process. And the employees that are a half your age, (that's three quarters your age) who are coming in doing this, the reality is they're going to have to learn the same things because by the time they get to the point in the organization where you are, they're going to be under the same challenges. It is all determined by us.

Jim Marous (23:43):

Change sucks. We all know that. But I hazard to guess that in your career you've made major changes that you are scared to death of. But the old saying, what doesn't kill you is going to make you stronger.

Lynn Yznaga (23:54):

It's true.

Jim Marous (23:55):

The reality is, your smile there, your enthusiasm, you're passionate for what you do. And people I've interviewed today have all had that in common. It's because you're going to move with the marketplace. You're going to find the partners that are going to make you smarter.

Jim Marous (24:07):

People ask me, “Well, how do I find the answer about …” Well, I said, "No, no, I'm not the smart-

Lynn Yznaga (24:13):

Hire somebody that knows.

Jim Marous (24:14):

I'm not the smartest person in the room, but I know people who are. And oh, by the way, none of them know it all.

Jim Marous (24:21):

If I pick and choose my partners to be the best at what they do, be the solution provider, whoever it is, be it a friend, if they're best at what they do, just like we select friends, it's going to be a good smooth process.

Lynn Yznaga (24:34):

Are you a Star Trek fan?

Jim Marous (24:36):

No, not really.

Lynn Yznaga (24:37):

Anybody? The board collective? I tell my folks this all the time. They assimilate those smarter civilizations to become a great-

Jim Marous (24:48):

And generative AI is just one of those. It's not going to have a human aspect, but how can I make it better? And then you are not going to be threatened by it, so you'll make it do a better job. Pretty cool. Thank you so-

Lynn Yznaga (24:59):

But think about the time saved too. If I'm not thinking about something, what else can I be doing with my time?

Lynn Yznaga (25:06):

So, I was scared to death of the whole scanning a tax return and letting a computer calculate the income. Like what's going to become of my number two pencil. But I began to trust that technology and now-

Jim Marous (25:21):

How much time did we spend with the eraser side of that number two pencil?

Lynn Yznaga (25:26):

My eraser would run out faster than the lead for sure. But I mean, two plus hours per loan when you had complex tax returns. So, yeah.

Jim Marous (25:36):

It's about attitude. It's about embracing that change. It's about taking risks and it is about disrupting yourself. We poo poo it, but the reality is if you're open to adjusting to what's going on around you, it's a lot happier world. It's a lot happier workplace, a lot happier life.

Jim Marous (25:52):

And it gives you the power to do that because you're saying at the end, I got this figured out. What's interesting nowadays, you got to keep on doing that. You can't rest on your laurels.

Jim Marous (26:04):

And Lynn, it is so good to have you on the show. I really appreciate it because you brought a lot of insights beyond just the lending.

Jim Marous (26:10):

You had the first great interruption we've had all day where you thought I was talking about you and I was actually talking about your customers. Oh, you don't want to answer my question before I ask them. That wasn't what I said. But thank you so much.

Jim Marous (26:23):

What's great about the people we've interviewed too is I don't think most of the people know how good they are at what they do and how important they are to the industry and how their enthusiasm, passion for moving forward at scale and speed is making MeridianLink better, making themselves better, making their organization better.

Jim Marous (26:43):

Which is all good because it's also, good for your members. Thank you.

Lynn Yznaga (26:48):

Thank you so much.

Jim Marous (26:48):

Appreciate it.

Lynn Yznaga (26:49):

It’s been tons of fun.

[Music Playing]

Jim Marous (26:51):

Thanks for listening to Banking Transformed, the top podcast in retail banking and the winner of three international awards for podcast excellence. We appreciate the support we've received from MeridianLink in making this eight-part series of episodes a success.

Jim Marous (27:05):

This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to our senior producer, Leah Haslage; director, Dave Douglas; audio engineer, Chris Fafalios; and video producer, Will Pritts.

Jim Marous (27:17):

Thanks for joining us and until next time, keep innovating and transforming.

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