Credit Approval in 5 Seconds – Fast Is Good, But What Do Old Credit Hands Think?

This morning, I was sitting in a corner of a coffee shop, slowly enjoying a cup of Americano while scrolling through LinkedIn, when a post caught my attention. A CEO was sharing enthusiastically about credit approval in five seconds, describing it as a technological breakthrough and a sign of leadership in Digital Banking and Digital Lending.

After reading it, I took another sip of coffee and paused to think for a moment.

Not because I doubt technology.

On the contrary, I believe that technology, big data, and AI can truly shorten the time needed for credit assessment and approval. Tasks that once took days, even weeks, can now be completed in minutes—or even seconds. That part is undeniably true.

But then a familiar thought returned, the kind that often comes to mind for old credit hands.

Now retired and long removed from credit assessment and approval—a line of work that I devoted 30 years to while working at a large bank—I would like to share a small, humble perspective.

Technology can process data very quickly.
But technology does not create accurate data on its own.

If the person entering the data, intentionally or unintentionally, provides information that looks “better than reality,” the faster the system works, the faster a wrong decision can be made. In the past, credit officers had time to read files, meet customers, and sometimes sense that something was “not quite right.” Automated systems, on the other hand, only see numbers.

Another factor that makes things more complicated in the digital age is that borrowers themselves now understand the system better. They know how to build an image, create a clean transaction history, and even shape a digital footprint that appears very trustworthy. If AI learns from such data, it will believe it—just as a human might.

In credit work, there is one thing many experienced practitioners know well:
risk often hides in files that look perfectly normal.

Approving a loan in five seconds is certainly an impressive achievement. But in my experience, the more meaningful measure is not what happens in five seconds at approval, but what happens three years later.

Technology helps banks move faster.
But in lending, moving fast without watching the road can sometimes lead to places no one wants to reach.

I believe the best future is not one where machines completely replace people, but one where technology does what it does best, while humans retain their role in judgment—especially where experience and healthy skepticism are still essential.

Because in the end, credit is still a profession about evaluating people.
And people… have never been an easy algorithm to solve.

Just a thought from a retired banker, watching with curiosity how technology is entering and reshaping banking.

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Mr. Old Man

7 February 2026
At a traditional café