With the general economy now fully rebounding online, financial institutions are positioning themselves to better help their commercial customers as they ramp up operations. Over the past 18 months, we’ve observed and learned that some businesses have struggled with agility, while others have been able to quickly adapt to changing market demands.

A key to survival for many businesses has been access to funding – but finding ways to accelerate that process is even more important today. Most commercial and business banking customers would prefer to work with their existing institution. In the economic reality of today, however, they are ultimately going to work with whoever can provide funding the fastest. We’ve already seen evidence of this through the paycheck protection program (PPP), where some financial institutions have gained market share through their ability to successfully process thousands of applications within a single day.

Institutions are taking their commercial card programs virtual, and that level of digital transformation is extending to commercial lending as well. By automating and standardizing commercial lending, institutions can more effectively:

• Break down rate sensitivities by collateral type.
• Compete against challenger financial institutions and fintechs specializing in specific deal types (hotels, multifamily, healthcare, etc.)
• Secure required documentation and financials from commercial developers and investors.
• Expedite the disposal of distressed and/or toxic assets.
• Close more deals in less time.

Innovative, cloud-based management software systems are significantly streamlining document management. This provides institutions with the ability to offer customers real-time collaboration to receive, modify and distribute financial documents directly into the institution’s workflow. In addition, it effectively replaces many traditional commercial funding processes for a more efficient, less labor-intensive system that is often independent from a localized level of market granularity.

FIS® offers the FCM Customer Portal, an integration between Cirrus’s document collection portal and FIS Content Management. This powerful solution enables meaningful operational efficiencies through the automation of traditionally manual workflows, improving audit controls through a more easily accessible, systematic and centralized repository of financial documents.

To learn more about how FIS is empowering financial institutions to better serve their commercial customers with the FCM Customer Portal, please reach out to learn more.