Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has announced a partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Covecta to introduce AI capabilities into its mortgage underwriting process. The new technology will take on some of the administrative heavy lifting including reviewing documents, to maximise efficiency. This will give colleagues more time to use their expertise helping customers and making the ultimate lending decisions which require their human insight and judgement.
The enhancement will benefit both direct customers and mortgage brokers through Accord Mortgages, the Society’s intermediary-only lending arm.
It is the latest example of targeted technological enhancements the Society has made to consistently boost the service it offers members, customers and brokers.
"At Yorkshire Building Society our purpose, Real Help with Real Life, means members coming together to make good homes possible for more people. This partnership with Covecta helps us further that purpose by giving our underwriting colleagues more time to focus on supporting customers and making fair, informed lending decisions, while reducing the manual effort involved in reviewing documentation. "By combining the expertise of our colleagues with specialist AI capabilities, we can improve experiences for our customers, create value for our members and help our colleagues focus on the work that matters most. Importantly, our people will remain at the heart of every lending decision."
Simone Fox, Director of Customer Support at Yorkshire Building Society
“Accord has built an enviable reputation for common-sense lending, and many brokers come to us because they know that we will do our best to help their clients where others can’t. We’ve done this over the years by carefully balancing some of the best human expertise in the industry, with cutting-edge systems enabling us to deliver that with utmost efficiency. This latest addition will further support that commitment and ultimately enable us to help even more people achieve their homeownership goals.”
Chris Hill, Head of Intermediary Sales at Accord
“The partnership forms part of YBS's wider ambition to explore how emerging technologies can improve customer experiences, streamline operations and support colleagues, while maintaining the high standards of governance, oversight and risk management expected within financial services. Yorkshire Building Society has a clear focus on delivering better outcomes for members, customers and colleagues alike. Their approach is not about adopting technology for technology’s sake; it is about using AI responsibly to support people and improve experiences. We are proud to partner with one of the UK's leading mutuals and look forward to working together to bring the benefits of specialist AI to mortgage lending while maintaining the human expertise and judgement that customers value most."
Ben Thomas, Founder of Covecta
About Yorkshire Building Society
Yorkshire Building Society is the UK’s seventh biggest mortgage lender, has assets of £66.3 billion and 3.1 million customers across the YBS Group, including Chelsea Building Society and Norwich & Peterborough Building Society, which are trading names of Yorkshire Building Society. Its subsidiary companies include Accord Mortgages Limited.
For more information on Yorkshire Building Society visit www.ybs.co.uk
For further media information please contact pressoffice@ybs.co.uk
About Covecta
Covecta is the only agentic AI platform purpose-built for banks, Building Societies, Specialist Lenders and Private Credit.
Built by a team with deep financial services and AI expertise, Covecta has emerged as a category-defining alternative to horizontal AI platforms that struggle with the regulatory rigour, auditability and workflow specialism required by UK Financial Institutions.
Covecta's LLM-agnostic architecture, financial services-native agent capabilities and rapid deployment model allow Financial Institutions to scale their operations without scaling their cost base. Covecta is live with customers across the UK and the United States.
