With the continual digitization of business, traditional banks and finance companies have struggled to find ways to maintain security and accuracy of data while accelerating review and approvals of credit applications.

ENGS Commercial Finance partnered with fellow financial technology firms Northteq and Middesk on a three-part video roundtable series to seek to solve the challenges of speed and risk associated with the continued digitization of business through the development of best-of-breed data validation and secure application logic, enabling fast and accurate decisioning.

The video roundtable series is divided into three topics: challenges in onboarding a business customer, business identity and mitigating fraud, and the new world of business finance.

“The accuracy, continuity of data and who is authorized to bind the company to a contract is a very challenging aspect for lenders,” Christopher Johanneson, managing director of operations, marketing and digital strategy for ENGS Commercial Finance, said. “We want to make it a seamless process, but it all starts with how accurate or useful the tools we integrate through partners Northteq and Middesk.”

As businesses drive toward digital operation, the risk of fraud increases. The panel discussed the risk of fraud and mitigation tactics in the second roundtable.

“The holes we are plugging today, there will be new holes tomorrow. It’s an evolving ecosystem of ensuring we stay on top of the technology,” Kristian Dolan, CEO of Northteq, said. “And it’s not just the fraud aspect: Businesses are starting all the time, so it’s knowing who these new companies are, there are thin credit files and how to go about connecting with all of them.”

Sourcing and verifying data is complex, however.

“Data discrepancies ranging from change of address or officer information to products or services and industries they operate in can all impact the perceived risk of the company,” Kyle Mack, CEO of Middesk, said. “When you are operating in a digital environment, what this typically looks like is a lot of friction placed on the business. Uploading documents, business licenses, tax returns, there is a lot of operational time spent going through these documents to get the required pieces of information to put together a loan package.”

The three-part series is available on ENGS’ multimedia library and on ENGS’ YouTube channel.