EvaBank is partnering with credit-decisioning platform Lokyata to help automate and streamline its loan-decisioning processes and give borrowers more access to credit. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

The bank is aiming to shift from manual processes through automation to process loan decisions more efficiently, which will allow for a larger volume of applications, Thomas Russell, president and senior credit officer at $396 million EvaBank, told Bank Automation News.

“Our manual processes have us behind the eight ball significantly in the technology industry and full automation,” Russell said. “We hope that with this system, we can get loans closed more expeditiously, and therefore get more loans in. And once the borrower has already entered EvaBank, we need a system that can take care of that borrower.” 

The Cullman, Ala.-based bank plans to use AI-driven Lokyata’s ExcelRate data analyzer tool to determine if parameters such as income-to-debt ratio, monthly income and credit limit thresholds are met when considering potential borrowers, Lokyata Chief Technology Officer Steve Bireley told BAN.  

“Even with calculated variables, we just collected and calculated [the client parameters], as each of them is a decision point along the way about how a decision was made, what the score was and what the next step is,” Bireley said, adding that the bank will also use Lokyata’s BankAnalyze tool to allow customers to import their banking information for faster decisioning. 

Lokyata uses AI to provide lenders with actionable data for potential borrowers and to allow EvaBank to increase its loan amount eligibility using the information, according to a bank release.  

EvaBank opted to go with Lokyata’s platform due to the ability to not only digitize the lending process, but also due to the malleability of the technology to the bank’s specifications, Russell said. 

“Every time we tried to kind of get into the fintech component, it was really them wanting us to change our model to fit theirs, instead of us knowing exactly how we want to do business and their system not wanting to mold to us,” he said.  

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