Initial Prob with Customer to understand their problem w.r.t. their loan application issue

If HBank called you because their loan processing takes 2 weeks vs ABCs 2 days, you shouldn’t jump to technology fixes immediately — instead, ask structured business + process + technology discovery questions to identify bottlenecks.

Here’s how I would frame the questions to H Bank:

🔹 1. Business & Customer Experience

• What is your target turnaround time (TAT) for loan approvals?

• Are you losing customers to competitors due to longer processing?

• Do you have customer journey mapping for loan origination to disbursement? Where do drop-offs happen?

• What KPIs are you currently tracking (approval rate, NPA %, processing time, customer satisfaction, cost per loan)?

  
  

🔹 2. Process & Operations

• Can you walk me through your end-to-end loan processing workflow (digital application → KYC → credit bureau check → underwriting → approval → disbursement)?

• Which parts of the process are manual vs automated?

• Are there multiple handoffs between departments (sales, operations, compliance, legal)?

• What is the biggest bottleneck — KYC, risk/credit evaluation, documentation, or compliance approval?

• How much dependency is there on branch staff/manual file handling?

  
  

🔹 3. Technology Landscape

• What core systems are you using for loan origination, credit scoring, and disbursement? Are they integrated?

• Do you rely on legacy systems (e.g., COBOL, PLSQL-heavy processes) that slow down approvals?

• Do you have APIs to integrate with credit bureaus, KYC providers, fraud detection, Aadhaar/e-sign/e-NACH services?

• How do you handle workflow automation — BPM tools, RPA, or manual email/document workflows?

• What’s your cloud adoption maturity — are you on private data centers, hybrid, or public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP)?

  
  

🔹 4. Risk, Compliance & Security

• Are regulatory/compliance checks causing delays? If yes, are they over-engineered/manual?

• Do you apply uniform risk scoring or is it case-by-case manual underwriting?

• How do you ensure fraud detection (real-time vs batch)?

• Are you applying Zero Trust principles across your loan approval ecosystem?

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🔹 5. People & Change Management

• Is the delay due to manual approvals by risk officers or lack of skilled staff?

• How open is the org to automation, AI-based decisioning, and straight-through processing?

• Do employees trust AI-driven scoring models, or is there resistance?

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🔹 6. Competitive Benchmarking

• Do you know how ICICI Bank is achieving 2-day TAT? (straight-through processing, API integrations, digital KYC, ML-based credit scoring).

• Which part of their journey do you feel you cannot replicate today due to regulatory, process, or tech constraints?

  
  

👉 These questions help you:

• Identify bottlenecks (manual KYC, slow underwriting, disconnected systems).

• Show you’re not just a tech person — you understand business outcomes.

• Prepare ground for solutions: microservices, event-driven architecture, GenAI-based document automation, real-time risk scoring, workflow orchestration, RPA, API-first integrations.

1. Understanding Current Process & Pain Points

• Can you walk me through your current end-to-end loan processing workflow (from application to disbursement)?

• Where do you see the biggest bottlenecks — KYC, credit scoring, document verification, approvals, or disbursement?

• How much of the process is manual vs. automated today?

• What are the typical SLAs for each stage (KYC, credit scoring, underwriting, compliance, etc.)?

2. Comparative Benchmarking with Competitors

• Have you studied ICICI’s 2-day loan processing flow? What do you think they are doing differently?

• Is your challenge primarily regulatory compliance (slowing down processes) or technology/process inefficiencies?

• Are there areas where you think customer experience is compromised due to delays?

3. Customer Experience & Business Priorities

• How do customers perceive the 2-week turnaround time? Is it leading to drop-offs or customer churn?

• What percentage of loan applications are lost because of delays?

• Is faster processing a top priority for leadership, or is risk management/compliance more important?

4. Technology & Operations

• What systems do you currently use for KYC, credit scoring, and underwriting? Are these legacy or modernized?

• Are your teams relying on batch processing, or do you have real-time integrations with credit bureaus, UIDAI, CIBIL, etc.?

• Do you already use AI/ML in fraud detection or risk scoring, or is it mostly rule-based/manual?

• How are documents handled today — OCR, AI-based extraction, or manual verification?

5. Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Are compliance checks (RBI, SEBI, internal audits) adding to delays?

• Would you be open to adopting agentic AI or RPA bots to assist in compliance/KYC without compromising security?

• How do you balance speed vs. risk appetite in loan disbursement?

6. Strategic Vision

• Is the 2-day SLA from ICICI setting a benchmark you want to match, or do you aim to go beyond that (say, instant/same-day approval)?

• Would leadership be open to phased modernization (quick wins → full transformation) or do you prefer a big-bang change?

• Do you already have an enterprise modernization roadmap, or do we need to define one together?

👉 The key is:

• Listen first (understand if bottleneck is people, process, or technology).

• Then map solutions like event-driven microservices, AI-driven KYC/credit scoring, GenAI for document processing, and RPA for automation.