Case
Digital transformation of the mortgage market - Landshypotek Bank
The case - digital mortgage application
Landshypotek Bank invited Limetta to pitch to find a new digital agency for UX, design and frontend development. The bank was entering a new market for them — mortgages for private individuals — and sought a new partner with both strong technical competence and the ability to create simple, intuitive interfaces with a high level of design finish. To our delight, they chose us.
Our first assignment was to develop the UX and design for a fully digital mortgage application where the customer prepares their loan themselves and receives a decision in real time. Landshypotek Bank's aim with the digital mortgage application was clear. It should not only be a simple flow, it should also feel thoughtful and reliable.
The solution
Seamless and transparent
A cornerstone of the project was to be economical with the applicant's time. By asking the most decisive questions first, the system can quickly determine whether a mortgage will be relevant or not. As a customer you should be able to apply for a loan at any time of day, on your mobile or computer, and at your own pace. You should avoid waiting times due to manual processing and requests for additional information. Everything that can be digitized should be digitized and automated to reduce administration, waiting times and manual steps.
Smart technology and clear design make the mortgage application simple
Applying for a mortgage may not be the most enjoyable thing to do in your spare time. It can even feel daunting with all the questions about income, family circumstances and debts. Together with the bank we therefore focused on the core values: safe, secure and simple in our work.
Because customers are authenticated using BankID, the system can itself retrieve information available from, for example, Lantmäteriet and UC. This simplifies things for the customer, who as a result avoids having to request certificates from various places that then must be sent to the bank, causing long lead times. Another advantage of BankID is the ability to sign the application directly in the application
Landshypotek Bank's graphic profile is based on their origins as an agricultural bank, with down-to-earth natural colours and an icon language inspired by farming and forestry. The blue colour symbolizes the sky and the brown colour the earth. In the digital mortgage application we use the blue colour for fields where the user should interact, the brown down-to-earth colour for information and summaries, and an orange colour when the user's attention needs to be drawn.
By developing the mortgage flow as a so-called "single page application", based on AngularJS, we achieve an extremely fast flow without unnecessary page loads and waiting times. The right choice of technology greatly contributes to the feel of the final product. The waiting times that do occur are due to underlying systems such as credit checks or lookups in the property register, and in those cases we let Landshypotek Bank's logo, Nils Holgersson on his goose, serve as a pause mascot
A better experience is about the right steps, not fewer steps
One insight we gained after an early user test of a simple prototype was that the classic principle "as few steps as possible" is not always the best solution. Even if certain data is technically linked, the user may not see the logical connection. We therefore chose to break up a complicated step into three simple ones, which turned out to work much better for users.
“A typical procedure we saw in the test group is that the applicant sits at the kitchen table at home, opens the application and their BankID while the co-applicant is making dinner. They sign, upload payslips, obtain information from UC online and possibly other things they are notified about during the process and after 10 minutes it’s done. The only thing left is for us to approve”
Merete Salmeling, commissioner and Head of Digital Channels and Innovation at Landshypotek Bank
Results
Landshypotek Bank's digital mortgage initiative was launched to a selected group of customers in April 2017 and to the public later in the autumn. Customers appreciate the simple flow and loan applications have poured in at a rate that surpassed the bank's ambitious targets.
Since 2017 we have continuously developed the mortgage application process with ongoing improvements. Now, for example, you can start your application at Avanza Bank and then be taken directly into the application flow at Landshypotek Bank to sign your new loan. It couldn't be smoother.
About Landshypotek Bank
Landshypotek Bank is a long-established agricultural bank and one of Sweden's ten largest, tasked with financing Swedish forestry and agriculture.
The bank offers savings and mortgages to homeowners. The bank is owned by approximately 41,000 borrowing customers in agriculture and forestry, organized as members of Landshypotek Economic Association
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