signNow for TurnKey Lender: How eSignature API empowers digital lending in AI-driven finance

Despite digital lending being one of the in-demand financial services, AI-driven finance is far from becoming commonplace. In 2022, it still takes weeks for lenders to approve a loan following the established procedure. For corporate loans, the wait is even longer.

Delays like that can be a major obstacle, especially when your business needs a timely financial boost to stay in the game. In financial matters, time is of the essence, and many individuals and organizations simply can’t afford the wait.

Determined to change the situation, TurnKey Lender set out to develop an IT platform for digital lending that automates and accelerates loan approval from weeks to hours. And when it comes to approvals, signNow is the go-to expert. With that knowledge, TurnKey Lender came to signNow for an eSignature API that could seamlessly integrate with their ground-breaking fintech service.

If you’re new to the concept of the signNow API, make sure to check out The ultimate guide to the signNow API to get a better understanding of how it works. 

For more information on the signNow API, its features, and references, please view our detailed documentation.

Customer profile

TurnKey Lender is an IT service provider for financial institutions. It offers an intelligent solution for businesses ranging from lending companies, banks, and credit unions to alternative lenders, healthcare companies, and retailers.

Their solution helps businesses make data-driven decisions and reduce risks by automating the process of evaluating borrowers, finalizing negotiations, and approving loans. TurnKey Lender uses artificial intelligence to improve, digitize, and automate every aspect of the digital  lending process.

“Fintech providers such as TurnKey Lender are competing to provide businesses with the most user-friendly, intelligent, and affordable automation for financial services as possible. This is further exemplified by meaningful partnerships (like the one we have with signNow) that help make sure all the automation needs of a business are addressed with the turn of a key in a single platform.”

— Elena Ionenko, Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer

Challenges before adopting the signNow API

• Traditional, pen-and-paper methods were not really viable for digital lending workflows.

Signing a physical loan application requires either meeting your customers in person or sending a paper document by mail or courier. The first option is the opposite of what a modern, customer-oriented financial business strives to achieve. The second is just plain costly and time-consuming. Both were issues TurnKey Lender was committed to resolving.

“The physical banking branches are either closed or working limited hours, and borrowers are getting used to accessible and affordable credit products. So, the ability to conduct all financial operations remotely, quickly, and intelligently is a matter of survival for banks.”

• Inefficient, paper-based workflows increased the costs of loan processing.

When you serve hundreds of customers every day, going through heaps of paper becomes a matter of hundreds of wasted employee hours. An inefficiency like that inevitably leads to higher margins on interest rates and diminishing customer opportunities.

“It still takes several weeks for many traditional lenders to approve a loan. And even then, the interest rate offered won’t be a fair one, often due to inflated staff and outdated scoring approaches. To the vast majority of people and businesses, this is simply unacceptable because they can’t afford it.”

• The abundance of low-value, menial work associated with traditional lending processes.

Printing, scanning, signing, mailing, and archiving lending documents used to divert employees’ attention from more meaningful, value-adding activities. Simplifying daily routines, reducing hassles, and taking human error out of the lending process were among the essential goals for TurnKey Lender.

“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.”

• The approval of a single loan used to take several weeks.

In a world where time is money, delays like that can be detrimental to business success or cause a major inconvenience for individual borrowers.

“The crisis of 2008 highlighted how flawed the banking and lending system was, so from that moment on, TurnKey Lender’s goal was to make fair lending a worldwide reality both for the lender and the borrower.”

Solution: Introducing the signNow API

• With legally binding eSignatures, TurnKey’s platform now provides a comprehensive, end-to-end service.

Borrowers can now fill out and sign loan applications in seconds, remotely, and from within TurnKey’s user-friendly solution. The AI will then evaluate financial risks and the borrower’s credit score, reach a conclusion, and complete the disbursement once the loan is approved.

• The entire digital lending process is now fully automated and requires no employee involvement whatsoever.

Due to considerable time and labor savings, businesses that use the TurnKey Lender solution can now shift their focus from crediting routines to more strategic tasks.

“With embedded lending, crediting doesn’t have to be your key product. You don’t even need to charge interest if you just want to offer your clients the option of paying installments. You simply make it a part of your business which improves your standing with clients and helps you reach new customer segments.”

• The loan approval lifecycle is now measured in minutes, not weeks.

The combination of TurnKey’s intelligent crediting technology and the signNow eSignature solution allows for unprecedented loan approval speed.

“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.”

• Considerable cost savings due to fully automated lending approval workflows.

With the help of signNow’s secure and intuitive eSignatures, TurnKey Lender has proven that complex lending processes don’t have to be as labor-intensive as they used to be in the past.

“So right now, anyone from an e-commerce store or auto dealer, to a bank, healthcare provider, or a payday lender, can launch their own digital lending operation. And what’s more, they can start offering affordable and profitable credit services in a matter of days for a fraction of the price it would cost them in the past.”

The bottom line

signNow is proud to partner with TurnKey Lender by offering an eSignature integration that allows both lenders and borrowers to streamline their digital document management and approval workflows. TurnKey Lender came up with truly innovative and relevant technology for finance organizations, and signNow is happy to take part!

“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.”

— Elena Ionenko, Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer

TurnKey Lender used signNow powered by AWS.