How do you automate lending using a Secretary of State API?

November 29, 2024
November 29, 2024
3 Minute Read
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Automate Workflows with a Secretary of State API

Manual processes for business verification? They're the dinosaurs of efficiency: slow, cumbersome, and frankly, a little outdated. Bottlenecks breed frustration. Delays lose deals. Nobody’s happy.

So how do you cut through the noise, speed up decisions, and delight your customers? 

Enter: the Secretary of State API. 

Think of it as your instant, always-on backstage pass to official business verification. With real-time data pulled directly from state records, you can ditch the endless searches and shave hours—or even days—off your process.

The result? 

Faster funding decisions. Happier customers. A reputation as the lender who doesn’t just meet expectations but smashes them. Adopt the Secretary of State API, and let your competition stay stuck in the Stone Age.

What is a Secretary of State API and How Can it Benefit Alternative Lenders?

A Secretary of State API, also known as a Business Verification API, allows you to seamlessly integrate real-time Secretary of State data directly into your lending platform. This eliminates the need for manual searches and data entry, saving you valuable time and resources.

Cobalt Intelligence’s API offers several key advantages for alternative lenders, including:

  • Real-time Data Access: Verify business information instantly, reducing delays in your underwriting process.
  • Enhanced Accuracy: Eliminate manual errors and ensure the data you're using is up-to-date and accurate.
  • Fraud Prevention: Identify potential fraud risks early on by verifying business legitimacy and identifying discrepancies in reported information.

Here are some specific ways Cobalt Intelligence's API can automate your workflows and improve your lending operations:

Streamline Underwriting Processes

  • Automated Business Verification: Verify business details like legal name, filing date, status, and address automatically upon application submission, eliminating manual data entry.
  • Improved Decision-Making: Utilize real-time data to make faster and more informed lending decisions based on accurate business information.
  • Faster Funding: Accelerate the entire lending process from application to funding by eliminating manual verification delays.

1West, a leading small business financing marketplace, utilizes Cobalt Intelligence's API to verify business information in real-time. This has freed up significant bandwidth for their processing team, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks.

1West uses the API to automatically verify business start dates, which helps them:

  • Determine eligibility: Identify businesses that meet specific time-in-business requirements for various loan products.
  • Offer competitive rates: Ensure businesses receive the most favorable loan offers based on accurate time-in-business data.

Strengthen Fraud Detection

  • Real-time Discrepancy Detection: Instantly identify discrepancies between applicant-provided information and official Secretary of State records, raising red flags for potential fraud.
  • Reduced Risk Exposure: Mitigate the risk of funding fraudulent businesses by verifying business legitimacy early in the process.

The Secretary of State API can also provide valuable insights for fraud detection, including:

  • Business Status Verification: Confirm the business is active and in good standing, reducing the risk of funding inactive or dissolved entities.
  • Address Verification: Verify the business address against official records, helping to identify shell companies or fictitious addresses.

Enhance the Customer Experience

  • Faster Application Process: Provide a seamless and efficient application experience for your borrowers by automating data verification, leading to increased customer satisfaction.
  • Improved Transparency: Offer transparency by utilizing verifiable data points from official sources, building trust with your customers.

Why Choose Cobalt Intelligence Over Generic Business Data Providers?

Generic business data providers often rely on outdated databases and lack the real-time accuracy that Cobalt Intelligence offers.

Here's what sets Cobalt Intelligence apart:

  • Direct Integration with Secretary of State Websites: Cobalt Intelligence retrieves data directly from the source, ensuring real-time accuracy and minimizing the risk of outdated information.
  • Advanced Technology: Cobalt Intelligence employs advanced technology, including AI, to enhance data accuracy and identify potential discrepancies that traditional data providers might miss.
  • Specialized for Alternative Lending: Cobalt Intelligence understands the unique needs of alternative lenders and tailors its solutions to address the specific challenges of the industry.

Overcoming Data Inconsistencies: Cobalt Intelligence's Approach to Normalization

One of the main challenges in working with Secretary of State data is the inconsistency in formatting and data fields across different states. Cobalt Intelligence addresses this issue through robust data normalization techniques, ensuring that you receive consistent and easily integrable data, regardless of the state's individual formatting:

  • Standardized Field Names: Consistent field names are used in the API output, simplifying data integration and eliminating the need for you to decipher varying terminologies from different states.
  • Status Normalization: While states use diverse terms for business registration status, Cobalt provides both the raw status and a normalized "active" or "inactive" flag, simplifying programmatic decision-making.
  • Confidence Scoring: To address variations in business names and potential user input errors, Cobalt's API includes confidence scoring, enabling you to assess the accuracy of the retrieved data.

Integrating the Secretary of State API: A Seamless Process

The Cobalt Intelligence API is designed for effortless integration into your existing systems, using a RESTful architecture for straightforward interaction with web services. This makes it simple for developers to connect the API to your:

  • Loan management systems
  • CRMs
  • Other platforms

Cobalt Intelligence also provides comprehensive support to ensure a smooth integration experience:

  • Comprehensive API documentation
  • Technical implementation assistance
  • Integration guidance
  • Same-day email support

API Response Times, SLAs, Rate Limiting, and Redundancy

  • The time it takes to receive data through Cobalt Intelligence's API varies, ranging from a few seconds to a minute or two. This is because Cobalt Intelligence emphasizes real-time data retrieval, pulling data live from Secretary of State websites.
  • In one instance, pulling data from one state could take up to two minutes. Another user noted response times of 30 to 45 seconds.
  • To mitigate the latency associated with real-time data retrieval, Cobalt Intelligence maintains a cache of business data covering approximately 70-80% of U.S. businesses. Users can query the cache first to receive data more quickly.
  • If a real-time request fails because a Secretary of State website is down, Cobalt Intelligence will automatically attempt to retrieve the data from its cache.
  • Cobalt Intelligence rate limits users to two concurrent requests to a certain state and five concurrent requests total. If a user exceeds these limits, their requests will be added to a queue.

Bulk Processing and Handling of High-Throughput Scenarios

  • The Cobalt Intelligence API is capable of handling thousands of lookups daily.
  • Cobalt Intelligence uses webhooks to handle asynchronous processing of requests, particularly when dealing with states that have slow data retrieval times. This process allows users to submit a batch of requests and receive the results as they become available without having to maintain a live connection or continually poll for completion.

Error Handling and Retry Mechanisms

  • For requests that take longer than 20 seconds, Cobalt Intelligence's API returns a retry ID, which users can use to check back in on their request.
  • Users can check the status of their request by implementing a loop that checks back every few seconds using the retry ID. Alternatively, users can configure webhooks to receive the data when it's available.
  • The sources do not describe other error handling or retry mechanisms used by Cobalt Intelligence's API.

Ready to streamline your workflows and make smarter lending decisions? Try Cobalt Intelligence’s Secretary of State API today and experience the power of real-time business verification. Contact us for a demo or sign up for a free trial to see how we can transform your lending operations.

  • Explore our other data solutions for alternative lenders, including TIN verification and UCC search.
  • Read our case studies to see how Cobalt Intelligence has helped other lenders achieve success.

Access Real-Time Secretary of State Data and Automate your underwriting process. We help Alternative Funders work smarter through AI Technology. Get our FREE AI Tools here

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