EDB Business Partner has launched its EDB Lending Solution for Commercial Loans as a software as a service solution, following successful trials of this version in Norway, and has marked its expansion into the UK with the release of a 'pay as you grow' offering for this market.
The EDB Lending Solution enables financial companies of all sizes to have a simple yet comprehensive management overview of all current loans they are engaged in, respond rapidly to changes in risk, and comply with EU requirements, including Basel II.
Following the success of the licensed system elsewhere, EDB has now launched a ‘pay as you grow’ offering for the UK market, where there has been a renewed industry focus on commercial lending as margins from retail loans have fallen considerably.
EDB stated that many of the current commercial lending solutions available are unsuitable and potentially open-up organizations to risk and compliance concerns. Medium-sized and smaller commercial lending organizations are especially affected, the company said, as these firms currently may have no bespoke solution to answer their needs and yet cannot fully justify the cost of investing in licensed software.
Currently, such companies are either operating using core systems altered internally by the IT department, developing internal bespoke software – which can be hugely draining on IT resources, or relying on a non-integrated system of Excel spreadsheets.
In contrast, EDB’s system gives commercial lenders a complete risk management tool, allowing them to track exposure and changes to underlying assets, implement robust business controls by creating access controls and data traceability and responsibility, store all data amendments and additions in an audit log, and work across multi-currency and syndicated lending.
The launch of EDB Lending Solution in the UK is in line with EDB’s strategy to expand in this market. The company said that, in addition to offering EDB Lending Solution as a service, it will continue to offer it on the traditional licensed software model in order to ensure flexibility and choice to UK financial companies and departments operating in the commercial lending arena.
With regulatory requirements becoming more urgent and financial companies needing stronger business controls, offering the EDB Lending Solution as a service provides organizations with the functionality they require while removing the economic hurdles of implementing a licensed system internally, commented Jorgen Roed, head of UK sales and marketing at EDB.
In addition to satisfying a neglected market sector within commercial lending, the software as a service model offers EDB an excellent opportunity to reassert itself in the UK market and gain competitive ground moving forward, he continued.