Case Study: Funding Circle achieves a 98% reduction in loan processing time (2 days to 1 hour) with DocuSign eSignature and ID Verification

Funding Circle digitizes their application process with DocuSign for a faster and better customer experience

Funding Circle, the UK’s largest SME lending platform that has lent over £11.5 billion to ~100,000 businesses, needed to eliminate remaining manual, paper-based steps in its online loan application flow. Although applications and credit assessments were already digital, loan agreements still required printing, wet signatures and scanned returns, causing delays (typically 24–48 hours) and adding friction to customer experience and identity verification.

By implementing DocuSign eSignature and ID Verification in its end-to-end workflow, Funding Circle digitized signing and signer authentication, cutting time to complete a new loan from around two days to one hour and enabling applications in as little as six minutes with lending decisions in seconds. The solution strengthened due diligence and trust for investors, supported rapid pandemic lending (about £2.6bn of CBILS approved via the platform), and delivered a faster, more secure customer experience.

Funding Circle