Leeds Building Society enhances lending flexibility with Finova’s Lending platform

Leeds Building Society is one of the UK’s top five biggest building societies, offering a range of lending and savings products to support homeowners and savers across the country. As part of its broader technology transformation, Leeds Building Society identified a gap in its mortgage origination capabilities—specifically, the need to efficiently process Limited Company buy-to-let mortgage applications to better serve a growing market segment. This presented an operational challenge, requiring a fast and effective solution to support these applications and maintain service efficiency.

Leeds Building Society faced several challenges in ensuring a seamless lending experience:

• Capability gap: Leeds required a solution to support Limited Company buy-to-let mortgage applications efficiently and in line with its broader lending strategy
• Operational impact: Without an origination solution, Leeds was unable to offer Limited Company buy-to-let lending, potentially limiting business growth‍
• Integration needs: The solution needed to be implemented rapidly and integrate seamlessly with existing systems and third-party services

To overcome these challenges, Leeds Building Society selected Finova Lending to originate its Limited Company buy-to-let applications. This was implemented to provide a flexible, fully digital lending experience, ensuring compliance and operational efficiency.

The platform’s advanced self-service capabilities allow Leeds to make configuration changes with ease, while its end-to-end digital channels enhance the application journey for both brokers and internal teams. Finova Lending also integrates seamlessly with key third-party services, including credit reference agencies, valuation providers, electronic ID verification, fraud prevention tools, payment gateways and loan servicers.

A key element of the project was close collaboration with third-party service providers and internal stakeholders. Finova’s team worked closely with all parties to ensure rapid integration and smooth adoption of the new platform.

The deployment of Finova Lending has delivered significant benefits for Leeds Building Society:

• Expanded lending capabilities: Leeds can now process Limited Company buy-to-let mortgage applications, unlocking new lending opportunities
• Improved efficiency: The fully digital, API-driven platform streamlines processes, reducing manual work and improving operational agility
• Seamless integration: Finova Lending was rapidly integrated with third-party service providers , ensuring a smooth transition
• Future scalability: The flexibility of the platform has led Leeds to explore its use for additional lending types in the future

By leveraging Finova’s Lending platform, Leeds Building Society has enhanced its lending capabilities, ensuring a more agile and scalable mortgage origination process to support future growth.