We love breaking things here at Digital Mortgages by Atom bank – conventions, banking stereotypes, old school thinking but especially customer experience records. It’s just a year since we launched so to end the year on a real high, we’ve recently broken another in-house record.

First, we had a customer’s mortgage go from full application to offer in 22mins. Then we broke this record again, and again, and again…and again! We saw offers made in 17mins, then 12mins, then 27 seconds, and now in 21 seconds. Yep, really, 21 seconds!

After picking our jaws up off the floor, we double, triple checked the data, rang the broker and there’s no mistake. A full application to offer in 21 seconds just happened.

Ok, so not all cases are going to go through at this speed, but it shows what we set out to do can be done and redefines the ‘art of the possible’. This case had all the right ingredients to whip through our automated system. A low LTV, a low loan amount, simple income streams and low personal debt, all of which contributed to an almost real-time decision and offer being made.

The case was submitted by our partner intermediary firm, L&C Mortgages, who have worked with us since launch and provided invaluable feedback to us over the last 12 months.

David Hollingworth, Associate Director Communications, said “We know that technology can offer greater efficiencies and time saving for customers but to see it bring such a rapid turnaround of application to offer shows just what a difference it can make. 21 seconds would be a tough ask for all applications of course but it does go to show what’s possible in the right circumstances. The more we see of this kind of blistering speed the better and over time we hope it can bring processing times down for more and more borrowers.”

Will 21 seconds become the norm for all mortgages? Honestly speaking, probably not. We have to be realistic about the unique scenarios we see coming through on applications but we do aim to have as many customers experiencing this level of speed, efficiency and awesome turnaround of offers as we can in 2018.

How? We continue to review, invest in and enhance our decision engine technology. We continue to focus on customer experience in the Atom bank app. And most importantly, we’ll continue to listen to, act upon and enhance our partnership with our intermediaries.