During our recent Sikoia event, we sat down with Rowan Clayton, Chief Product Officer at Finova, for a candid fireside discussion about what automation looks like in practice - not just in theory.

The mortgage industry is making progress, but the gap between ambition and execution remains.

At a recent Sikoia event in London, leaders from Barclays, Nationwide, and Y3S Group joined an open conversation about one of the most pressing challenges facing the mortgage industry: how lenders and brokers can work together to deliver faster, smarter, and more transparent customer journeys.

We’re all feeling it - the industry’s changing fast. Customers want smooth, digital journeys, yet lenders are working within complex systems and ever-growing compliance demands. The real challenge now is finding a way to move faster without losing trust or control.

Verifying income has always been central to onboarding and credit decisioning in financial services. But when it comes to self-employed individuals, the task becomes significantly more complex. Income streams are often irregular, documents vary in format, and traditional checks don’t always provide the full picture.

The pace of change in financial services, shaped by rising regulatory requirements and customer expectations, is transforming the way documents are processed and verified. At Sikoia, we help banks, lenders, fintechs, and brokers automate and speed up customer verification, cutting down manual work while ensuring strong compliance.