Knowledge Bank launches new KB INSIGHTS system

22 March 2023

Knowledge Bank, the UK’s largest database of lending criteria has today launched ‘KB INSIGHTS’.

The new system, powered by the Knowledge Bank criteria sourcing engine, is a powerful tool for lenders to interrogate their own criteria’s performance and benchmark it either against the whole or a specific area of the market. This enables lenders to identify gaps in their criteria that might see them excluded from brokers' searches. It also helps lenders to identify new lending opportunities and the size of this potential.

The system was built in consultation with a number of high street lenders, building societies and specialist lenders. The millions of searches performed by brokers on Knowledge Bank provides an unparalleled richness of data which makes it an incredibly accurate and powerful tool for lenders to benchmark their proposition against both the rest of the market and customer demand.

KB INSIGHTS is available across all seven lending types covered by Knowledge Bank which are Residential, Buy to Let, Second Charges, Equity Release, Self-Build, Bridging and Commercial and lenders have the option to customise their subscription to only include the areas that they lend on to tailor it specifically to their needs.

The system can be accessed via a user dashboard which shows the lender their average search position measured against the market and how many times they have appeared in brokers' searches, amongst other key measurables. This data is perfect for both internal reporting and board packs to give a snapshot of the lending landscape. For lenders who want to plumb the data straight into their own analytics the API is also available.

Nicola Firth, CEO at Knowledge Bank said, "Lenders have always been desperate to know how and where their criteria was positioned in brokers' searches and now they have that power. Typically they only knew about the cases that made it through to an application and had no idea how many potential borrowers were excluded by their criteria decisions. Now, we're giving them the ability to find criteria niches and help more brokers place more cases." “Comparison tools are built into the system and lenders can use KB INSIGHTS to really drill down into the data and fine tune their policy proposition and give greater clarity to brokers. Feedback from lenders has been amazing and lenders tell us they have used KB INSIGHTS to be able to identify and satisfy criteria niches that have previously gone under the radar.”

A key feature of INSIGHTS is the policy performance 'ribbon' that displays the lenders' spectrum of acceptance. Lenders are also able to compare their policy wording, spread and gradings as well as the popularity of categories. It’s also possible for lenders to see the criteria categories that are making up the profile of potential borrowers and the cases that brokers are looking to place.

KB INSIGHTS also displays the top 20 criteria searches performed by brokers in any of the seven lending types which gives lenders an insight of the current lending landscape and how their criteria stacks up against demand. Reports can then be generated by the system and data exported into the lenders' own systems or into csv files.

Lenders wanting to find out more about KB INSIGHTS can visit: www.knowledgebank.uk