Banking Document Review, Powered by AI
For commercial lending teams: an agent that reads the borrower's loan package against your lending checklist, pulls the figures into the spread, and tells the relationship manager what's missing before the file reaches underwriting.
4 packages reviewed since 8 AM. One going back to the RM:
How can a bank automate document review for commercial loan packages?
A bank automates loan package review by giving an agent the folder where borrowers upload documents and the checklist your loan policy already uses.
- 01
Trigger fires
A borrower or relationship manager uploads documents to a loan package folder.
- 02
Classify each document against the lending checklist
- 03
Extract financials into the spread template
- 04
Cross-check names, entities and dates across documents
- 05
You approve
Anything under your confidence bar waits for a human.
The agent opens each file, identifies it as a business tax return, interim financial statement, rent roll, appraisal, insurance certificate, operating agreement or beneficial ownership form, and ticks it off the checklist. It extracts revenue, EBITDA, debt service and property values into the spread template, and compares names, entity numbers and dates across documents. Missing items and inconsistencies, such as a guarantor on the term sheet who isn't in the operating agreement, go to the relationship manager. An underwriter makes every decision; the agent only prepares the file.
How you tell it what to do
Built in plain English.
You write the rule the way you'd describe it to a teammate. The agent reads the rule, breaks it into the actions it'll take, and confirms the apps it'll touch — before it does anything.
- 1Classify each document against the lending checklist
- 2Extract financials into the spread template
- 3Cross-check names, entities and dates across documents
- 4Email the RM missing and mismatched items
Chatbot vs agent
One asks. The other finishes.
What you get back when you hand document review to a chat window, versus to an agent wired into your Banking stack.
When you ask
Go through the Brookline Tool & Die loan package and tell me what's missing.
A general AI chatbot
“A typical C&I package includes three years of business returns, interim statements, a personal financial statement for each guarantor, a debt schedule, insurance certificates and formation documents. Compare what you received against that list and follow up on the gaps.”
DeskFerry
- Classify each document against the lending checklist
- Extract financials into the spread template
- Cross-check names, entities and dates across documents
- Email the RM missing and mismatched items
A checked-off checklist, the spread filled in, and the RM already emailed about the K-1, the insurance certificate and the ownership mismatch.
What it handles
What the agent takes off your desk
The Document Review work that runs without you once the rule is set.
Files reach underwriting complete
Gaps are found when documents arrive, not when an analyst opens the package days later and sends it back to the relationship manager.
Spreads without retyping
Figures from returns and financial statements land in your existing spread template, with the source page noted beside each number.
Mismatches surfaced early
Names, ownership, entity numbers and dates are compared across every document, so a conflict is raised before it becomes a closing condition.
Analysts keep the judgment
The agent prepares and flags. Approvals, exceptions and policy waivers stay with the people who own them.
Reads scanned and native PDFs
Tax returns with schedules, audited statements, appraisals, title commitments and insurance certificates, including multi-hundred-page appraisal reports.
Follows your checklist
Works from your bank's own C&I, CRE or SBA checklist, so the review matches what your loan policy requires for each loan type.
Cites the source page
Every extracted figure and every flag points to the document and page it came from, so the analyst can check it in one click.
Tracks document expiry
Notes appraisal effective dates, insurance policy periods and interim statement dates against the expected closing date.
Context
Why loan package review stalls between the RM and underwriting
A commercial loan package is forty documents from three sources, and no two borrowers label them the same way.
- nCino
- Abrigo
- Moody's CreditLens
- SharePoint
ClaudeChatGPTbuilt in
- Salesforce Financial Services Cloud
- DocuSign
- Microsoft 365
The relationship manager collects what the borrower sends, the analyst finds out what's missing, and the file bounces between them while the borrower waits on an answer.
The slow part is rarely reading a single return. It's the cross-checking: the guarantor's name on the personal financial statement versus the operating agreement, the entity on the insurance certificate versus the note, the appraisal date versus the closing date, the tax return's net income versus the borrower's own statements. The agent does that comparison when each upload lands and writes its findings next to the checklist. It doesn't approve, grade risk or decide whether an exception is acceptable. It makes sure that when an analyst opens a package, the questions left are ones only an analyst should answer, and the data never leaves the systems your bank already runs.
Use cases
How teams put this to work
Scenario 01
Annual covenant reviews
Borrowers send year-end statements and compliance certificates in the spring. The agent reads each one, recalculates the debt service coverage and debt-to-EBITDA figures from the statements, and flags any certificate where the borrower's own calculation disagrees with the numbers underneath it.
Scenario 02
CRE rent roll checks
For an investor property loan, the agent compares the rent roll against the leases in the package, noting tenants whose rent, term or square footage differ, and leases that expire before the loan's first rate reset.
Scenario 03
SBA 7(a) packages
The agent works through the SBA forms alongside the bank's own checklist, confirming each owner above the guaranty threshold has a personal financial statement and signed forms before the package goes to the SBA lending team.
Operating agreement shows 3 members at 40/30/30. Beneficial ownership form lists only 2 owners.
Appraisal effective date is 14 months before the requested close. Policy note on the checklist says 12.
Net income on the 2025 1120-S is $412,300. The borrower-prepared statement shows $468,900.
Human in the loop
Approve before it sends.
Every draft lands in a review queue. You approve, edit, or reject — the agent never acts on its own unless you explicitly turn that on for a workflow you trust.
Governance
Every action, with the reasoning attached.
Each step the agent takes is logged with what it did, why it did it, and which app it touched. Audit-ready, so security and compliance can sign off without backfilling.
- Agent10:18 AM
Emailed Tom Alvarez 3 open items on Brookline Tool & Die.
- Agent10:16 AM
Held Brookline Tool & Die for analyst review.
Reason: Ownership differs between the operating agreement and the beneficial ownership form. Which one is current is a judgment for a person, not the agent.
- Agent10:14 AM
Wrote 2024 and 2025 revenue, EBITDA and total debt service to the spread for Brookline Tool & Die.
- Agent10:11 AM
Classified 19 uploaded files; matched 14 to checklist items and marked 2 as duplicates.
- Renee9:52 AM
Signed off on the Meridian Plaza spread and sent it to underwriting.
How it works
Get started in three steps
Step 01
Connect the package folders and spread
Give the agent the SharePoint, Box or loan origination folders where packages land, plus your spread template and the checklist for each loan type.
Step 02
Describe the review in plain English
Write what a junior analyst is told: which documents each loan type needs, which figures go in the spread, which mismatches always go back to the RM.
Step 03
Analysts review the flags
Each package shows a checked-off list, the filled spread and every open question with its source page. The analyst decides what happens next.
Start automating Document Review for Banking
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does the agent decide on or approve loans?
No. It classifies documents, extracts figures, compares them and reports what's missing or inconsistent. Risk ratings, approvals, exceptions and waivers stay with your analysts and loan committee. Anything the agent is unsure about is held in the review queue with its reasoning rather than written into the spread.
Where does borrower data go during review?
The agent reads documents from the folders you connect and writes results back into your own spread template and loan system. Borrower files stay in your bank's systems, and every document opened and every value written is recorded in the audit log, which your examiners or internal audit can review.
Can it handle scanned tax returns and appraisals?
Yes. It reads scanned and native PDFs, including business returns with their schedules and K-1s, and long appraisal reports. When a scan is too poor to read a figure with confidence, it leaves the cell empty and flags the page instead of guessing.
Does it replace our loan origination system?
No. It works alongside nCino, Abrigo or whatever origination system you use, reading from and writing to the places your team already works. It doesn't add a new system for relationship managers or analysts to log into.
Can we use different checklists for different loan types?
Yes. Give it your C&I, owner-occupied CRE, investor CRE and SBA checklists, and it picks the right one from the loan type on the package. When your loan policy changes, you update the checklist or the plain-English rule, not code.
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