Whitepaper · 11 min read

The decision was
never the slow part.

In complex lending — a mortgage, a large or unusual case — the customer applies and then waits while a long back-and-forth gathers the data needed to decide. The decision takes days; the weeks go on getting the case ready. Here’s how to fix time-to-ready at its root — so the human touch becomes small, high-value and fast.

Inside this whitepaper

Time-to-ready, not time-to-yes
Where the weeks actually go — gathering and back-and-forth, not the adjudication.
Why slow kills deals
~29% of UK sales fell through in 2024. Speed to a reliable decision is a commercial metric, not a nicety.
Arrive case-ready
Let the system gather and validate the data, so a complete file reaches the underwriter — not a half-empty one.
Fewer touches, higher value
Shrink the human touch to one decision — then let ML automate more of the book over time.

The cost of slow

1–3 days
Underwriting once a file is complete
~5 months
Average UK purchase — up 38% in a decade
~29%
UK sales that fell through in 2024
£8.6bn
Annual cost of failed UK transactions

Written by

Shaun Adams
Shaun Adams
CTO, Credit Canary · June 2026
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