Beyond the PDF: Why manual data collection is a relic of 2016 and how to reclaim 5 hours per deal

Efficiency Gains

As the title suggests, I'm making the wild claim that brokers can claim back 5 hours per deal. I'm going to suggest you use a couple of tools to accomplish this, but overall, the result will be a net gain of 5 hours per deal.

I want to go on the record that I'm not someone that will spruik another company's product on my own company's blog. But the efficiency gains here are enormous. If you're a Mortgage Broker and you (or your back-office staff) are not using Frollo then you're going to have your mind blown.

To understand how we reclaim those 5 hours, we need to look at the two distinct phases of a loan where time usually goes to die:

Phase 1: The Application (Solving the "Email Tennis")

Asking for clients for their bank statements can be a pain. Particularly when you're trying to explain to them what the difference is between a bank statement and transaction history. The hellish nightmare of the volley of emails between myself, support staff and clients used to be such a time sink. Then Frollo rolled in and made the world a better place for Mortgage Brokers.

Frollo uses Open Banking (also known as CDR or Consumer Data Right) data. Below are the steps to access a client's bank statements:

1. Broker sends consent request to client

2. Client authenticates themselves with their bank

3. Client picks the accounts they want the broker to have access to

4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 per bank

5. Job done!

From here, you now have live access to their bank statements. The data stays live for up to 12 months (the client decides how long your access is). This means that if you have a client whose pre-approval expires and they want to go again, you still have access to their updated data! No more email tennis. Better still, it integrates with ApplyOnline to auto-pull the data you need.

The craziest part? It’s currently free to use. While I can't speak for their internal business model, in the world of tech, if you aren't paying for the product, the data itself is usually the value. For most brokers, that’s a trade-off worth making to move away from the less secure manual PDFs.

A huge problem with the recent CBA $1B loan fraud scheme was the doctoring of PDF documents. If only there was some kind of solution that did not involve PDF documents but gave them a direct feed to the data they need to assess an application?

Why Security Wins: The "Screen Scraping" Problem

There will be Mortgage Brokers reading this thinking, "Yeah but I use bankstatements.com.au and I save loads of time!" Prior to the advent of Open Banking, I would have agreed with you. But look back at point #3: "Client authenticates themselves with their bank."

Unlike Frollo, the older "Bank Statements" products ask the customer for their username and password and then "screen scrapes" their internet banking platform. Giving out a password is never a good idea. That platform can never account for things like key logging or the strength of that user's internet security. It’s a flaw in the "screen scraping" system itself. A flaw so bad the MFAA is calling for a ban.

With Open Banking, they use a secure authentication method. Your bank sends you a one-time password securely. At no point are you asked for your internet banking password. When you see the CDR "Tick" logo (the official Consumer Data Right symbol), you know the process is backed by federal government security standards.

The logo that tells you "This app is secure"

Phase 2: Post-Settlement (Solving the "Platform Hopping")

The next time-savings measure is post-settlement. You'll be shocked to learn that it is LoanCheckr! Presently, accessing your client's post-settlement data is a mishmash of measures that changes from lender to lender. Some have a robust system; others want you to call the help desk or your BDM just to find out basic information.

You can save hours in phone calls and email follow-ups using LoanCheckr. As long as you have consent to view your client's home loan data, you can access it 24/7. No more platform hopping; you get the same data, presented consistently, regardless of the lender.

The 5-Hour Breakdown

If you're wondering where exactly those 300 minutes go, here is the comparison of the manual "old way" versus the automated "new way."

I know some will scoff at these numbers. Of course, a "vanilla" deal will require less processing and yield smaller savings. But consider the outliers: the complex files with 20+ bank accounts across multiple institutions, or the intricate multi-split structures for high-net-worth clients. When you factor in the inevitable 24-hour wait for lender help desks to provide post-settlement data, the time reclaimed on these high-value deals often climbs well beyond five hours.

Capping it off...

By leveraging the power of Open Banking and streamlined post-settlement tracking, mortgage brokers can realistically reclaim up to five hours of administrative heavy lifting per deal. Replacing risky, manual "screen-scraping" methods with the secure, CDR-backed automation of Frollo eliminates the tedious "email tennis" of chasing bank statements. When paired with LoanCheckr to bypass the fragmented nightmare of post-settlement lender portals, brokers gain a consistent, 24/7 view of client data. Ultimately, adopting these two tools isn't just about security compliance—it’s about stripping away hours of redundant correspondence to focus on scaling your business.