This invention relates generally to lending and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for automating lending processes.
Managing financial risk in lending often requires closely monitoring the financial status of borrowing customers. Such monitoring sometimes requires extensive financial reporting by the borrowing customer, such as tracking accounts receivables, account payables, and inventory. In addition, a lender typically analyzes each such financial report. Analysis of the financial reports by the lender sometimes requires extensive resources, and results in delays by the lender in granting credit to the borrowing customer.
To speed up lending processes, and to comply with reporting requirements, borrowers utilize facsimile and overnight delivery of information. In addition, reports are sometimes transmitted electronically, e.g., via e-mail or by conventional mail on a floppy disk. Electronic transmissions using fixed file formats for invoice information also are used in “factoring” type loans.
Although information can be more quickly delivered using a facsimile, overnight delivery, or electronic transmission, the reports must still be managed and analyzed. Such document management and analysis requires extensive resources and sometimes result in delays in the lending process or not analyzing all the information, which increases potential for issues and risk, and leads to added costs.