Saffron Building Society adopts AI for mortgage processing

Saffron Building Society has signed a deal with FintechOS to use the supplier’s AI platform for residential mortgage processing. Staff will work with an AI agent called DAX to answer product and case queries as the society seeks to expand its mortgage book to £2bn over the next five years.

The Essex-based mutual is about 180 years old and employs roughly 200 people, with a transformation team of about 35. The society has started the project with its residential mortgage business to increase processing capacity and remove manual steps that slow decisions from offer to completion.

All mortgages are sold through brokers, and the society has focused the project on giving brokers clearer product information and greater certainty on decisions in principle. Qasir Aslam, chief transformation officer, explained: “From a broker perspective, they want to understand what our products are and who the customers are – then they need decision certainty.” He added that customers expect a smoother application journey.

Initially, Saffron staff will interact with DAX to resolve queries about products and individual cases. The society plans to extend access so brokers can query the agent directly about specific customers and product suitability. “Colleagues can ask DAX questions, but the plan going forward is then to make that available to brokers as well,” Aslam noted.

The project targets more complex mortgage cases first, including self-employed applicants, customers with variable income patterns and landlords. The transformation team will capture more complete information at application so decisions in principle are more likely to hold through to completion and reduce downstream checks.

Saffron is running the programme in phases. A continuous improvement stream will identify priority processes, the society will deploy an initial release early next year and then expand functionality and add products iteratively. Aslam described the approach as aimed at proving benefits early and then building on them.

Executives say the society cannot match the processing scale of the largest lenders but that selective automation can address specific bottlenecks and free staff for higher-value work, such as developing broker relationships and improving products. Management has reassured employees that the technology is intended to support staff rather than replace roles. “AI isn’t there to take your job away. AI is there to help you to automate the mundane, day-to-day tasks so that you can focus on more value add,” Aslam said.

Other smaller lenders have reported faster processing after implementing the same platform. In December 2025 the Financial Conduct Authority set out areas of focus that include encouraging the use of data and technology in mortgage broking while maintaining human oversight. Saffron’s programme aims to install the core mortgage origination journey on the platform and then refine end-to-end workflows as it scales.