The LMA's FinTech survey highlighted the strong interest and demand for document automation services. There are many recognised benefits from automating the end-to-end process of the production of a wide range of loan documents and these benefits apply to a wide range of potential users, whether banks or law firms, smaller or larger organisations and across sectors and geographies.
LMA.Automate has been designed specifically to capture these benefits. Key benefits of using the service include:
Improved Efficiency
- Significantly reduces the time taken to generate all forms of loan documentation
- Improves quality, productivity & reduces errors by automating repetitive work
- Greatly assists in eliminating inaccurate & non-compliant content and promoting best practice
- Benefit of widespread standardisation & template version control
- Collaborative working – deal teams access one version
- Centralised updating of templates/changes (e.g. LIBOR transition)
Enhanced Capability
- Facilitates the production of loan facility documentation (including security documentation) but also 'bank prepared' documents
- Term Sheets & Mandate Letters
- Confidentiality Undertakings (whether for trading or otherwise)
- System fully adapted to accommodate bespoke 'house style' requirements & documentation
- Potential for cost savings from use of automation
- Potential origination benefit in negotiating term sheet/mandate docs (potential to allow client access to LMA.Automate)
Secure Control
- Secure environment with user access/permissions strictly controlled
- Control hierarchy can be defined
- Separate dedicated area for each institution on the site
- Ring-fenced, restricted access for confidential transactions
- Standardisation & template approval/version control
- Potential compliance benefit
Intuitive User Experience
- User-friendly & fully intuitive tool
- Comprehensive suite of training materials; easy to learn & adapt; no programming knowledge required
- Quick progression to creating 'bespoke' additional automation capability & content
- Platform for enhanced collaboration across teams internally
- Potential for collaboration with peers/clients & for negotiation tool/e-signing
- Flexible technology
Data Analytics
- Technology to support the loan market will increasingly be data driven
- LMA.Automate will allow inputs to be captured as structured data allowing comprehensive analytics & data reporting
- Inventory of key terms & templates on the platform
- Real-time analysis on terms (e.g. financial covenants)
- Significant enhancement to future change processes (e.g. regulatory changes impacting templates)
- Potential future benefits from structured data (internal purposes/development of tools/AI)