MQube has released new analysis signalling a structural shift on the horizon for the mortgage industry, driven by advances in AI-powered underwriting. The analysis shows that AI can accurately perform around 70% of traditional mortgage underwriting tasks, a development set to materially change the role of human underwriters from processors to auditors.
The study examined nearly 1,000 complex mortgage cases that had already been underwritten by experienced human underwriters. Using the exact same information provided to the human underwriters, MQube’s AI technology re-underwrote the cases and reached the same outcome as human underwriters 70% of the time.
“Mortgage underwriting, long defined by manual review of income, credit history, affordability, property details and risk factors is moving from human execution to machine intelligence. As AI assumes the bulk of case processing, the role of the underwriter will fundamentally evolve from processing applications line by line to overseeing, validating and governing AI-driven decisions”, says Stuart Cheetham, CEO of MQube.
Cheetham adds: “What our analysis shows is that much of the work done by a human underwriter can now be done faster and accurately by AI. This is about improving speed and consistency and importantly not removing human judgement.
With average underwriting times typically around four hours per case, reducing that to approximately 25 minutes using AI-driven underwriting represents a meaningful shift for lenders, brokers and borrowers alike. As this becomes standard practice, the impact on the industry could be game changing.”
The rollout of MQube's AI-powered underwriting service forms the second phase of the leading mortgage tech firm's digital transformation journey. The first phase focused on delivering the One Day Mortgage, a key milestone that has driven the company’s continued growth and success. AI underwriting is a further enhancement to its mortgage origination platform, Origo, adopted by some of the UK’s largest building societies and lenders, that will not only bring a structural shift in how underwriting is carried out but also add even greater speed and efficiency to the mortgage journey.
