17.02.2021

ArchiDoc, a company from the OASIS Group, provides advanced and comprehensive back-office and operational support services for nearly 30 most significant entities in the Polish financial sector. The solutions offered by the company are used by 9 out of the 10 largest banks in the country. Last year, ArchiDoc widened its offer with document credit verification services. In February 2021, the company opened a dedicated center for handling loan applications for banks.

ArchiDoc – one of the largest Polish companies offering business services in the field of document management and back-office services, part of the OASIS Group – will open a credit application center for the banking sector in February 2021. Last month the center was prepared, and as of February this year, it will concentrate all operations related to the processing of loan applications. In the Francuska Office Center complex in the center of Katowice, one of the major cities in Poland, the company will ultimately employ 120 financial analysts who will prepare documents and carry out credit verification for the needs of bank experts’ decisions.

Photo by Christian Wiediger / Unsplash

– The Polish banking sector is one of the most advanced ones in the world. Specialized companies play an important role in it by supporting financial processes. As a result, banks can remain much more flexible than in carrying out the same processes completely internally. Services such as the loan application center offered by ArchiDoc enable them to make faster decisions about their clients, while strictly following regulatory and security procedures. This is especially important in times of crisis-induced effects of COVID-19 and the increasingly competitive pressure from fintech and loan companies – says Konrad Rochalski, President ArchiDoc Group OASIS

Flexible solution for the industry

The new center prepares the documentation you need to make loan decisions and performs a multifaceted verification on it. On the one hand – it is tedious but necessary work, related to obtaining information about the client’s situation, collecting documents, checking their completeness, correctness and timeliness, while on the other hand – it is carrying out advanced credit verifications, for example, regarding individual contracts for the purchase of real estate, verification of borrower profiles in accordance with the requirements of a specific bank, etc. The prepared application studies will be sent to bank experts. It is up to them to decide whether to grant a loan. Nevertheless, proper preparation of the process in terms of formalities and substantive assistance significantly accelerates the operation and relieves the employees of dealing with financial institutions.

Banks are increasingly interested in cooperating with external entities on this type of processes. This allows them to maintain a high level of customer service and speed of operation in the era of dynamic market changes. Progressive digitization, cost pressure, employment restructuring and competition from the fintech and non-banking sector, which is not subject to such strict legal regulations, are changing the rules of the game in the sector. The credit application center can also be used by banks as a backup center. It is also a solution for smaller financial institutions, including non-bank ones, that are just entering the market, and their teams of loan specialists must focus only on the key stages of processing loan applications.

– We offer a flexible conversion of fixed costs to variable costs. We are prepared to handle any number of requests in accordance with the adopted level of SLA – explains Konrad Rochalski.

In a pandemic, faster from back-office to middle-office

For many years ArchiDoc has been supporting entities from the financial sector on many operational levels. The vast majority of banking institutions in Poland use ArchiDoc services in the field of document management and information flow in the areas of sales support, customer service, finance, HR and administration. Some of ArchiDoc’s largest clients are Alior Bank, Getin Noble, ING, Millenium or Pekao.

Recent years have shown a dynamic growth of ArchiDoc. Currently, only in the area of ​​operations carried out for clients, the company employs over 1,000 people – this is 40 per cent more than in 2018. In 2019, the company opened an operational center in Łódź. There are also centers in Chorzów, Warsaw, Sokołów and Młochów, as well as a network of over 50 local document offices throughout the entire country. The company is successfully transforming its business model from a provider of simple archiving services to a BPO partner (Business Process Outsourcing) dealing with complex processes for the largest Polish and foreign companies.

– ArchiDoc specializes in BPO business processes “driven” by data stored in paper and electronic documents. For over 25 years we have learned how to handle them logistically and how to obtain them from carriers in a safe, fast and cost-effective manner – explains Konrad Rochalski, President of ArchiDoc.

According to a report by ABSL (Association of Business Service Leaders), from year-to-year specialists employed in Poland are more and more responsible for advanced elements of the service chain, that are beyond contact with the end customer (the so-called middle-office). These include, among others, handling loan applications. However, the amount of simple works supporting the operational activities and administrative services of companies (the so-called back-office) is decreasing. In 2017 – 2020, the average increase of the middle-office processes in centers in Poland amounted to approx. 24 per cent.