BMO Harris Bank

A solution forgrowth throughomnichannel lending
BMO Harris Bank created an exceptional experience acrossmortgage and home equity products for both consumers andlending staff.

253%
YoY increase in digital homeequity application

Headquarters

Illinois

5days

Shaved from mortgage and homeequity application cycles

LOS

NetOxygen

15%
YoY growth in overall homeequity applications

Innovative lenders like BMO Harris Bank understand that
consumer lending isn’t changing — it already has. According
to Tom Parrish, director of consumer lending productmanagement, “We have an appetite to grow assets in bothmortgage and home equity, but it’s a competitive space.
We need technologies supporting positive experiences
across products.”
As Parrish and the rest of the team have found, historicallyuseful goals — like creating individually digitized productexperiences — no longer suffice. Instead, portfolio-wide digitaltransformation has become a baseline requirement.
Adopting Blend’s Digital Lending Platform “has been an
important part of the profitable growth across our mortgage
and home equity lending products,” according to Mark
Shulman, head of consumer lending. In other words, BMO
Harris Bank has achieved true omnichannel success.
Continue reading to explore how the BMO Harris Bank teamnurtured an exceptional cross-product experience for bothconsumers and lending staff, leading to headline-worthy results.

Blend has been an important part of theprofitable growth across our mortgage andhome equity lending products.
Mark Shulman
Head of Consumer Lending

Choosing Blend for adigital-and-more strategy
Before selecting Blend to power its cross-product lending
platform, the BMO Harris Bank team understood the need forsubstantive change, focusing first on its mortgage product.
“We needed to grow our mortgage business beyond what ourbankers could do,” explained Sean D’Espositio, director of
product transformation. “We knew we weren’t getting our fairshare digitally, and we knew that we needed some capabilities
in that realm to grow our overall market share.”
Digital expansion is a powerful mechanism for gaining market
share without expensive physical growth. The team leveraged
its knowledge of research indicating that 81% of applicants
prefer online loan solutions, but only 3% choose to undertakethe entire process through digital channels.
As Shulman explained, “We have customers that can’t makeit into the branch but are not quite comfortable with being
totally digital.”
For digital natives, Blend allows near-complete autonomy.
Applications can be driven by the applicant in-app, whenever ismost convenient and at the pace most suited to his or her needs.
For those less comfortable with digital interfaces, Blend’s
Co-pilot feature allows lending staff to jump in, providing
in-app guidance and coaching. “From miles and hours away,
our bankers are able to work with their clients and complete
applications using Blend,” Shulman happily reported.

A platform for happy customers,
happy bankers
With Blend in place, the BMO Harris Bank team achieved digital
expansion while building on the company’s already stellar
reputation for customer experience.
“When customers and our employees talk about Blend, theytalk about how the experience has been transformed,” noted
Melissa Garcia, head of mortgage sales. “In a world without
Blend, getting a mortgage is an overwhelming, cumbersome
experience. Blend truly has simplified the process.”Core to this experience boost is the flexibility that Blend offers.
Staff can easily move between purely digital, intermediated,
and in-person interfaces depending on the customer’s needs.
“Maybe a customer is not enthused or doesn’t have the time
to do it in a branch — then the banker can send them a link to
Blend’s digital app,” explained Shulman.

We knew that we needed some capabilities
in the digital realm to grow our overallmarket share.
Sean D’Espositio
Director of Product Transformation

Digital improvement has also been very important for thebranches, according to Shulman. By facilitating a self-serve
process, Blend allows branch bankers the space needed tofocus on in-person tasks, such as providing financial advice
or building stronger customer relationships. He added, “I’veheard several times from bankers that they now have more timeto sell.”
Creating positive customer experiences would have been a win
in itself, but BMO Harris Bank has also gained other benefits
from this customer-focused approach. Parrish explained thatthey actively think through how to “delight our customers,which will then turn into revenue opportunities.” The
excitement that Blend brings to a typically unexciting process
drives growth. “Folks refer their family and friends, given theirgreat experience with Blend.”

I’ve heard several times from bankers thatthey now have more time to sell.
Mark Shulman
Head of Consumer Lending

An easy decision to expand into home equity
Perhaps the biggest driver of success for the BMO Harris Bank
team has been Blend’s consistent platform approach acrossmortgage and home equity product lines. After seeing positive
results from Blend’s mortgage product, bank leaders decided
to implement Blend for home equity. This created a unified
experience for applicants and brought productivity to branchbanking teams.
“We’re able to do things much more efficiently like collecting
documentation with ease,” explained Parrish. “Less backand forth with our processors, underwriters, and customers
is critical to our ongoing success as we grow consumer
lending profitably.”In the end, the numbers speak volumes. “With Blend, we’ve
reduced mortgage and home equity cycle times by overfive days.”
he cross-product success that BMO Harris Bank has
experienced stems from Blend’s platform approach. “Wewere able to leverage the investment in the connectivity
for mortgage and then repurpose that for home equity,”
explained D’Espositio. As a true technology partner, the Blend
team worked to incorporate a system that addressed BMO
Harris Bank’s holistic needs, rather than providing a one-off
temporary fix.

A partnership for continuously
evolving solutions
The success that the BMO Harris Bank team has experienced
stems from a strong understanding of customer needs anda dedication to fulfilling them. With Blend’s Digital Lending
Platform in place, customers and staff alike are enjoying aconsistent cross-product experience.
Continued customer focus, however, requires constantadjustment — both the Blend and the BMO Harris Bank teams
are ready to deliver. As Shulman put it, “With Blend, we believe
it’s going to continue to evolve so that customers will be doing
the majority of the processing and the majority of the closingwith very little human touch.”This forward-thinking approach is what will help BMO Harris
Bank stay in the lead, despite continually changing customerexpectations. D’Espositio summed it up best: “Blend helps us
stay at the forefront.”

With Blend, we’ve reduced mortgage andhome equity cycle times by over five days.
Tom ParrishDirector, Consumer Lending Product Management

About Blend
Blend is a Silicon Valley technology company empowering
lenders of all sizes to be more efficient, compliant, andborrower-friendly. To learn more about how Blend cantransform your originations business, visit blend.com.