Zest AI Model Management System Review
There’s a consensus in underwriting that processes can be mundane, inefficient, and unproductive. These processes comprise mostly manual activities, like data sourcing, sorting, and filtering. The amount of time and energy these consume has always begged the question, “Could we automate the underwriting process?”
Zest is one of the companies working very hard to address these issues and answer the question. The company developed MMS, an AI-powered platform that uses machine learning to perform actions like credit risk assessment and underwriting. This article delves deep into how the MMS actually works, reviewing its features and exploring its use cases.
Zest AI Overview
Zest is a technology company that aims to improve financial services delivery. The company’s mission is simple; to build a more equitable financial system. Founded in 2009 as ZestFinance, the company has always positioned itself as enabling technology and innovation.
Zest’s roots trace back to Google and Capital One, where some of its co-founders formerly worked. It started by using machine learning for credit risk and borrower assessment. In 2019, the company changed its name to Zest AI to better reflect its mission and operations.
Zest’s most popular tool is the Model Management System (MMS). It utilizes the power of AI to enhance lending processes. This aids better decision-making, raises profits and minimizes loss. Despite focusing on a particular industry and service, Zest’s model and value proposition have attracted the interest of various investors. As a result, the company has received funding from various outfits.
- Established: 2009
- Founders: Douglas Merrill
- Offices: California, United States
Expert Opinion
Rating: 4.4/5
Zest AI MMS aims to eliminate the tedious processes that underlie underwriting and the overall credit lending business.
One of Zest’s standout features, which is notable from the first interaction with the website, is the optimized user interface and user experience. The website is easy to navigate and makes information easy to find. You can easily register and create an account with the company. While this was enjoyable, some pieces of vital information, such as the terms of service and pricing details, are missing.
The MMS completely changes how businesses perform underwriting and lend to their customers. It uses AI to power three different but integrated functionalities. However, Zest can also provide loan management services. For instance, rival companies, LendFoundry and LendPerfect, offer customer management as part of their features.
Zest created an avenue to reach out quickly to its support team to request a demo or purchase the software as a whole. Because of this, the company omitted any pricing details on its website. This absence of pricing details can deter prospective clients.
By adding these details, the company will make information easy to find and ease the stress on the customer support teams. Expanding the list of service integrations can also increase the platform’s competitive advantage in the market.
5 Core Features of Zest AI MMS
Notable Features
The MMS offers numerous features that benefit credit-lending companies. Below are some of these features:
1. Powerful Credit Underwriting Models
Zest AI MMS enables you to build powerful underwriting models for quick loan applications and determine loan repayments. You can identify good borrowers with minor default chances by utilizing the productivity and accuracy of artificial intelligence models. Zest AI MMS helps you spot these loan-worthy individuals, even if they’re overlooked by national credit scores.
It uses predictive analytics to understand risks better and provide accurate data on loan applicants. By providing loans to users who are more likely to pay back, businesses can increase their profits and expand their operations.
2. Responsible, Streamlined Workflows
Zest AI doesn’t only help you build underwriting models; it ensures every lending operation is a success . From the business team to the credit risks and compliance teams, you can keep tabs on what everyone in the process is up to and ensure proper integration between them.
With Zest AI MMS, business teams understand the impact of credit models on portfolio economics. Credit risk teams can compare the proposed model against benchmarks to predict how it might perform. Finally, compliance teams ensure models comply with all existing regulations by reviewing key factors, ensuring fair lending, and documenting model risk management.
3. Model Monitoring and Business Management
Being able to create powerful underwriting models is excellent, but being able to monitor them is even better. The underlying architect behind the models is Artificial intelligence, which, sometimes, is prone to errors. To address these errors, the MMS ensures effective model management.
You can also take this management to the next level and apply it to the entire business. With Zest AI MMS, monitoring every staff involved in loan granting and underwriting processes becomes easier.
4. Automated MRM Report and Decision-Making
MRM is short for model risk management and is an important concept in finance. While this broadly falls under the category of model management, it focuses more on the risk aspect. Model risk management asks one simple question; “Could using financial models be exposing a business to more risks?”
MRM ensures that predictions are accurate by considering the right variables. By avoiding poorly designed models, managers and executives can make more accurate decisions and prevent any losses that may arise from poorly designed models.
5. Rapid Implementation
MMS has three core applications that form the nexus of the software. These are Build, Adopt, and Operate. These tools integrate seamlessly to put you in complete control of the entire underwriting process. You can eliminate activities that slow down the lending process for faster approvals and reduced risks.
Zest AI MMS Integrations
Zest AI has partnered with a few organizations, including data providers, loan originations, and core systems. As a result, the software integrates with some of the tools from these organizations.
For example, Zest AI automated credit underwriting integrates effectively with Sync1’s System data-driven lending services. Due to this integration, credit unions that have partnered with Sync1 Systems for their lending services can leverage Zest AI MMS. This enhances better decision-making through accurate and insightful models.
Other loan origination and core systems that synchronize well with the Zest framework include MeridianLink, Defi Solutions, Inovatec, and Corelation.
Zest AI MMS Use Cases
Due to its numerous features and flexibility, businesses and individuals use Zest AI for numerous purposes. Here are some of its use cases:
1. Credit Risk Assessments
As the name suggests, credit risk assessment denotes how risky it is to give out credit or loans. The result of this assessment helps a lender determine how likely it is that a loan applicant might default on a loan. Its powerful AI technology enables businesses and credit unions to rank loan risks accurately. This involves analysing applicants credit and overall financial status, like portfolio analysis.
2. Fraud Detection
Fraud detection is one way by which Zest AI minimizes the risks inherent in a credit application. In building its models, the MMS uses machine learning to analyze large volumes of data. On the one hand, this can help identify the most trustworthy loan applicants so that the credit company makes profits. Zest AI also helps to identify fraud by uncovering suspicious transactions and patterns that can indicate fraudulent activities.
3. Automated Underwriting
Credit underwriting is typically a complicated process where the underwriter attempts to aggregate the effects of various factors. The three main factors to consider here are your income, credit score, and valuation. Analysing these and other factors helps the underwriter to determine how risky your loan application is, which they inform the lender or credit company.
To save time and costs, companies use Zest AI for automated credit underwriting. Since this system is AI-powered, it has large datasets to work with. This increases the accuracy of the underwriting assessment.
4. Lending Laws Compliance
The underwriting and insurance field is heavily regulated. Failure to follow these regulations may lead to unwanted consequences for the loan or credit company. Zest developed the MMS to be compliant with these regulations, especially fair lending.
Fair lending prohibits lenders from granting loans to individuals based on their color, race, national origin, religion, and other biases. Zest’s model works by only considering the borrower’s financial background, such as income and creditworthiness. This makes it compliant with numerous financial laws.
Terms and Policies
Using Zest AI’s MMS or any other of its tools means that you agree to operate by the company’s terms. These terms typically cover how to use the company’s apps legally and what conditions might warrant a revocation or termination of your access.
Zest also publishes a privacy policy on its website to show its commitment to secure data transfers. Unlike the terms of service, the privacy policy outlines which data the company collects from you and how it might relate with or handle that. Zest encrypts all the data that users send to and from its site with HTTPS/TLS.
The company clearly states that its services are not for children under the age of thirteen. Overall, the company can use the data it collects from users to upgrade its platforms or deliver better experiences to users in ways it deems fit. This includes advertising and social media posts. Users are, therefore, warned against posting personal or sensitive data, including account numbers or social security numbers.
Customer Support
Zest AI provides numerous channels for easy and accessible customer support. If you have questions, concerns, and feedback about how the company operates or its privacy, you can use the email channel.
Due to its partnership with many companies, you can also interact with Zest at numerous events and conferences. You can request a meeting or demo on the company’s website for other kinds of support. Fill in a form by adding your name, email address, job title, company name, industry, state, and country. A support staff from the company should reach out to you after a short while.
Final Thoughts
The MMS from Zest AI is a transformative software in the finance industry. By replacing tedious underwriting processes with AI, it improves credit decision-making, reduces risks and increases revenue. It’s a recommended tool for any credit-lending and insurance companies.
