From application to completion: Q&A with Lending Operations Manager Jeetna Vara

See our Buy-to-Let processing times, rates and Special Editions

The lending operations team is one of the most vital in any lending business looking to deliver the right loans to its clients in good time.

Our Lending Operations Manager for Buy-to-Let, Jeetna Vara, joined LendInvest in September 2020 and explains how her role works and how the team is improving the lending operations process to make it simpler for the team and deliver faster finance for clients.

What does your role involve?

In a nutshell, my role is to oversee the full process of mortgage applications from DIP to Completion on our Buy-to-Let product. 

I am responsible for two teams: the BTL pre-offer and the BTL post-offer teams.

The pre-offer teams package the cases once applications are received from brokers. Once the offer is made, the post offer team works with our solicitors to get the case completed. 

I look at the smooth running of both teams and implement changes to create improvements and efficiencies to our processes. The customer journey is paramount to what I do and all processes must be designed to produce completions and offers that consistently meet or exceed service standards. 

Get to know our pre-offer team

We’ve had a fair bit of technology that has been implemented in the pre-offer team to help reduce the time it takes to package a case. 

As a result our processes have also had to change to not only take account of the new technological capabilities, but also to streamline other aspects of our roles without impacting our service to our brokers. I use KPIs to measure, understand and drive performance improvements.

Another important part of my role is to engage with the other teams in the business, mainly underwriting and sales. I work closely with the underwriting to keep up to date with criteria changes, which may impact our work and we have to adapt our processes accordingly to ensure the pre-offer team is carrying out the correct case reviews.

By working closely with the sales team, my team and I can better understand our brokers’ needs. 

The feedback we get from brokers is invaluable as it helps us better understand requirements for their clients and encourages me to implement changes to better support them and meet their needs. This feedback goes two ways as well, as Ruby Harvey, pre-offer team manager, and I recently worked with a broker firm offering guidance on how to get the most out of our broker portal. Being a fintech we utilise technology however it is just as important for us to be able to provide support on a personal level. 

How we sped up our service levels

Since you joined, what have you been trying to change about how the ops team works?

I regularly assess why we do what we do, how we do it and identify ways in which we can do them better and faster (if possible!). Most of the time it is about simplifying what we do. 

For example, instructing valuations is time critical, and we have amended our process such that we only carry out critical assessment of the case prior to instructing valuation.

Any remaining parts of the assessment are carried out following instruction of the valuation, which means that we are now instructing valuations a lot faster from the point of receiving an application.

What do you think good lending operations look like?

In a nutshell, a well oiled machine that works efficiently and seamlessly in the background to get the case from DIP to completion. A balance between technology, transaction expertise, stakeholder management and timing is critical to a good lending operation.

See our Buy-to-Let processing times, rates and Special Editions