How eSignature API can improve signature workflows in the Financial services industry
The financial services industry has been slow to adopt API technology, compared to other industries. In 2020, the API traffic in financial services increased by 125%, which was about one-fourth of the growth shown by the healthcare industry. With API technology becoming more commonplace across a wide range of financial institutions, the number of APIs deployed is expected to double by 2027.
The powerful capabilities of today’s eSignature solutions, such as document generation, role-based signature collection, bulk sending, file sharing, secure storage, and integration with third-party platforms make it easy for financial firms of all sizes to serve their customers from anywhere, any time. Businesses who leverage eSignature APIs report a significant improvement in their customer satisfaction scores.
In this blog, we’ll focus on the key benefits the financial sector reap as a result of using eSignature API.
eSignature API for financial services: Use Cases
Using an eSignature API, financial institutions can:
1. Integrate eSignatures into a website, customer portal, or application
An integrated on-site eSignature allows for automating financial workflows, while ensuring that clients stay on the website or application to complete a process (consent, contract). eSigning a legally-binding document in a familiar digital environment helps significantly improve the conversion rate associated with the signature.
2. Integrate eSignatures with a CRM for completing, eSigning, and sending contracts
Integrating eSignature with a CRM allows for improving document accuracy by pre-populating contracts with data stored within the system. This integration is especially useful for lengthy loan contracts or insurance forms with many fields to fill out for both customers and employees. Using an integrated eSignature allows for accelerating contract completion while increasing the likelihood of obtaining a signature on the contract.
3. Pull data from fields in a completed document into a CRM
Exporting data from financial documents into a CRM via an integrated eSignature solution ensures customers’ contract details are always up-to-date. Using API integration for automated data transfer allows for accelerating the decision making process, while also reducing the chance of human error.
4. Bulk send documents for electronic signature
For many financial institutions, sending individual documents to multiple signers — if the process isn’t automated — is inefficient and time-consuming. eSignature APIs allow for automating high-volume distribution tasks, such as W-4 and payment forms submission,with the bulk send capabilities.
5. Automate storage of completed documents
Once saved to a server, completed documents can be uploaded to a CRM system or a cloud drive of choice, allowing for better visibility into customer activity. Secure cloud storage ensures that document retention requirements are met and that eSignatures are compliant with laws and regulations, such as UETA, ESIGN, and others.
Key benefits the signNow eSignature API delivers to financial institutions
As of 2022, signNow services 1,254,510 financial institutions globally. Using signNow’s eSignature API allows financial firms to accelerate signature cycles and customer data collection when opening an account, approving a loan, finalizing financial transactions, and more.
Here are the four benefits of integrating signNow’s eSignature solution via API, according to our customers:
✅Accelerated document turnaround from days to minutes
The adoption of eSignature API has significantly accelerated signature collection times in banking, digital lending, accounting, and more. Today, customers can sign documents from anywhere, anytime, using only their smartphones and tablets. Signature cycles can be completed within a few minutes instead of hours or days.
With signNow, it takes 10 seconds and a minimum of 2 clicks to sign a single document. Hence, the percentage of documents signed within the first hour increases to 15%.
✅ eSignature integration into an in-house CRM
As global document transactions are steadily increasing, more financial institutions are looking to integrate eSignature APIs with their CRMs. signNow’s seamless API integration with Salesforce allows financial teams to implement paperless workflows quickly and easily. This allows finance professionals to eSign and send documents for signing without leaving their CRM. Using the signNow API has proven to enhance employee and customer experience while easing admins’ and developers’ workloads.
“Lending is a complex process, and you don’t have to focus all your time and resources on it as the system [TurnKey Lender + signNow] can do all the heavy lifting for you.”
— Elena Ionenko, Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer at TurnKey Lender
✅Improved transparency of document workflows for potential audits
signNow tracks signatures in real-time and sends notifications once a document is signed. This way, financial professionals can stay up-to-date on the status of a document and instantly respond to incoming paperwork, thus reducing waiting times for customers. signNow’s court-admissible audit trails and document history ensure maximum transparency of document workflows when facing potential audits.
Research suggests that 80% of financial institutions using eSignature in their document workflows have achieved audit efficiency.
✅Reduced risks of data breach
Paper-based contracts and wet-ink signatures are extremely vulnerable to data breaches — they’re easy to forge, and document copies are often misplaced or stolen. Financial institutions relying on electronic paperwork and eSignatures feel more secure about the contracts sent between systems. signNow’s security features, such as two-factor authentication, digital certificates, network protection, and an audit trail, make eSignatures difficult to alter or tamper with. With signNow, financial institutions can deliver, update, and save documents following global compliance regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, 21 CFR Part 11, and SOC 2 Type II.
Between 2018 – 2022, financial companies suffered 982 data breaches, affecting over 153.3 million records.
How TurnKey Lender benefits from the signNow API
“There’s no doubt that digital lending is taking over as the new normal simply because it’s the next evolutionary step for the industry. Financial institutions will just have to adapt if they’re intent on staying in business,” says Elena Ionenko, Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer at TurnKey Lender. An IT service provider for financial institutions experienced the positive impacts of implementing signNow’s eSignature API during COVID-19.
“All in all, risk assessment, borrower evaluation, and credit score decision-making take our solution as little as 30 seconds to reach a conclusion. To draw a comparison, most traditional lenders can take up to 9 business days to complete this process.”
— Elena Ionenko, Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer
TurnKey Lender automated their digital lending process and accelerated loan approvals by integrating signNow’s eSignature into their financial workflows via the API. All while keeping processes transparent and customers’ sensitive data secure with an advanced, court-admissible audit trail.
TurnKey Lender’s clients have reported their operational efficiency has grown on average by 283%, and their client lifetime value has increased by 67%.
The bottom line
Not only are financial institutions looking to get documents signed fast to accelerate transactions, they also need a hassle-free eSignature integration into their existing websites, customer portals, and apps. The signNow API provides seamless integration with financial solutions for banking, digital lending, and insurance. It empowers financial firms to provide faster services and delight clients with a seamless and intuitive signing experience, ensuring maximum transaction transparency and keeping customers’ sensitive data secure.
