Scaling smart: how banks can unlock growth in commercial lending

Commercial lending for banks is back on the agenda – not just as a niche line of business, but as an untapped growth engine. As margins shrink in retail lending and volatility rises in investment banking, institutions across EMEA are increasingly looking to commercial lending for growth. 

In 2024, annual investment in EMEA commercial real estate reached €206 billion, marking a 23% YoY increase  driven by strong activity in sectors like logistics, mid-market real estate, and infrastructure projects. At the same time, a recent European Central Bank survey of major eurozone leaders found that corporate loan demand continued rising last quarter despite geopolitical uncertainty and high rates. 
Yet despite the growth opportunities that commercial and commercial real estate (CRE) lending represent, many banks are struggling to scale and meet the demand. Many institutions are still managing deals using a fragmented web of spreadsheets, shared drives, and siloed systems – slowing approvals, obscuring risk, and limiting growth. 

Risk and operations teams often work in isolation; deal data is inconsistent and often manually rekeyed; approvals are hard to track, and audit trails are not easily accessible. The result is a process that is slow, opaque and difficult to scale, particularly in high-stakes, asset-based lending. 
To scale commercial lending, banks need to connect origination and risk on one platform – structuring deal data at the source and embedding real-time visibility of the loan cycle. 

In this article, we’ll explore the opportunity for banks within commercial lending, what holds them back from investing in commercial lending and what a truly integrated commercial real estate finance solution would look like.

The opportunity for banks with commercial lending  

In a landscape of shrinking margins and rising cost of funds, commercial lending stands out as an increasingly stable opportunity. Margins are typically healthy and are accompanied by regular fee income, and unlike consumer lending, these relationships tend to be sticky and high value – particularly in the mid-market. 

A customer might begin with a term loan or revolving credit facility but as their business scales, so too does the opportunity for cross-sell across business and personal lines. That same founder could become a high-net-worth client or their company could enter capital markets. 

There’s significant growth potential not just in volume, but in lifetime value. And even more so for banks that modernize their infrastructure to enable modern tech features such as real-time risk insights, unified customer views, and event-driven workflows. 

Banks that embed real-time risk insights within loan origination – typically through automated scoring and data dashboards – see faster approvals, lower operating costs, and better controls. According to McKinsey, digital credit platforms deliver up to 40% lower costs while dramatically improving the customer experience. 

Instead of relying on static reviews or manual processes, deal teams can see the full picture of a borrower’s creditworthiness as financials are updated, risks flagged in real time, and dynamic pricing or terms dynamically adjusted as market conditions change. From the moment a deal enters the pipeline, teams gain a full view of the borrower’s exposure, collateral, and compliance – ultimately lowering the risk of non-performing loans (NPL) or at least having the ability to spot them as early as possible. 

Commercial lending remains one of the few areas in banking where margins are strong, cross-sell is high, and relationships are long-lasting. But the banks that win won’t just be those with the biggest balance sheets. They’ll also be those that lend smarter, faster, and at scale. 

That means building a commercial credit engine designed for today’s market that is: 

• Structured, auditable data from day one 
• Has real-time risk signals built into origination 
• Includes connected workflows that reflect how teams really operate 

By upgrading the infrastructure that supports commercial lending, not just the user interface, banks can unlock faster deal cycles, sharper risk assessment, and more responsive client service.  

What holds banks back from investing in commercial lending 

On paper, commercial lending is a clear strategic bet. But many financial institutions are still hesitant to invest. Why? It’s not the complexity of the deals; it’s the infrastructure surrounding how those deals are assessed, managed, and monitored. 

1. Disconnected data means teams aren’t working from the same playbook 

Unlike retail lending, commercial credit is low-velocity by design. Each deal is complex, often bespoke, sometimes syndicated and heavily reliant on expert judgement. Loan sizes are large, risk is concentrated, and approvals depend on multi-party workflows involving front office, underwriting, credit, risk, portfolio, and compliance. 

A typical deal may require 50 to 100+ data points – from borrower financials and industry trends to collateral details, profitability, ESG metrics, regulatory considerations, and more. But that’s only part of the challenge. The other is where and how that data is handled. 

Instead of flowing through a unified platform, deal data is scattered across a patchwork of disconnected systems. The front-end deal capture might sit in a CRM or loan origination tool, risk models may run on Excel or SAS, servicing data may live in legacy core banking platforms, and covenants tracked manually with heavy use of end-user computing. Some systems are cloud-based; others are still on-prem. There’s rarely a consistent view, let alone a real-time one. 

Each team – from relationship managers to credit officers to compliance – works with their own interface, their own data formats, and their own version of the truth. The result is manual rekeying, inconsistent inputs, approval delays, and missed insights. 

Even when demand is high, this fragmented architecture makes it hard to scale. And with clients expecting faster decisions and more responsive service, especially in mid-market and corporate segments, the cracks become even more visible. Without a unified, structured approach from origination through to monitoring, banks risk falling behind on both efficiency and customer experience. 

2. Risk assessments rely too heavily on the past and ignore what’s coming next 

Another major challenge is banks’ continued reliance on historic data to make forward-looking credit decisions. Most banks evaluate a customer’s last three to five years of financials but stop short of assessing what’s coming next. 

In volatile sectors like real estate, shipping, or aviation, that backward-looking approach quickly breaks down. To make smarter lending decisions, banks need a predictive lens: 

• Are there material changes expected in the borrower’s business? 
• How is the industry evolving? 
• What external factors, from oil prices to regulatory shifts, might impact performance? 

Banks often have the internal data to answer some of these questions but few are combining it with external insights like ESG ratings, sector benchmarks, or macroeconomic indicators to get a complete picture. 

This is where open APIs and third-party data providers come in. By integrating external intelligence into the credit process, banks can sharpen risk assessment, support sustainability-aligned lending, and stress test portfolios with real-world context. 

The issue isn’t a lack of data – it’s using the wrong data, in the wrong way, at the wrong time. In short, that’s what’s holding banks back: legacy decisioning models, limited external data use, and missed opportunities to modernize how risk is analyzed and acted on. 

How an integrated commercial real estate finance solution can look like  

SAP Fioneer’s Credit Workplace is designed specifically for commercial banks managing complex asset-based lending portfolios. It replaces spreadsheets, Word templates, and manual workarounds with a connected platform that unifies every stage of the credit lifecycle – seamlessly integrating multiple data inputs across origination, digital decisioning, risk monitoring, servicing, and reporting. 

Acting as the single source of truth for front and back office, Credit Workplace is a central operating system for asset-based lending helping banks act faster, manage risk more proactively, and scale without adding cost. 

Replace siloed systems with a unified source of truth 

Every stakeholder – from relationship managers structuring a new deal to a credit analyst reviewing risk metrics, or a portfolio manager tracking exposures – works in the same platform, on the same real-time data. 
Credit Workplace brings together origination, credit risk assessment, lifecycle management all in one solution. Built on an open architecture, it integrates seamlessly with existing Fioneer solutions (like CL/CML, CMS, SAP FI, and risk engines) as well as external data sources – enabling richer insights and smarter lending decisions. 

By consolidating fragmented tools into one unified environment, banks gain a more complete, real-time view of each customer and credit exposure. That means better decisioning, stronger risk controls, and ultimately, a higher-quality, more resilient loan book. For instance, a bank can automatically ingest property data from online property portals to validate real estate valuations or occupancy trends then combine that with internal credit scores or pricing models. The result is more accurate decisioning and real-time portfolio oversight. 

Spot the strongest deals and the biggest risks earlier 

Credit Workplace gives banks the insight and agility to identify the most promising opportunities and flag high-risk exposures sooner in the lending process before they impact the bottom line. It does this in two ways:

First, by integrating internal credit scores with external market feeds, the platform gives deal teams richer, context-aware insights into borrower quality, asset valuation, and market dynamics. That means banks can access the true potential of each opportunity, not just what’s on paper. 

Second, this data is delivered in real time. Rather than relying on static reports or end–of-day batches, lending teams get instant visibility into deal-level KPIs and portfolio-level risks – from tenant lease expiries to fluctuating loan-to-value ratios. That allows faster go or no-go decisions, earlier detection of NPL signals, and more confidence in complex lending environments. For instance, if a borrower begins to show signs of stress, banks can use SAP Fioneer’s automated KPI tracking, risk alerts, and scenario forecasting to flag early signs of NPL risk, laying the foundation for time-sensitive decisions based on live data.  

Configure workflows with more control, and take a deal from start to finish within one platform 

Every bank’s lending model is different. Credit Workplace supports tailored workflows no matter what lending model by asset class, jurisdiction, or deal type while preserving consistency through embedded guardrails and governance logic. 

Whether managing CRE, infrastructure, or sponsor-backed deals, banks can: 

• Configure layered approvals, version control and covenants 
• Connect pricing models and internal risk scores 
• Tailor workflows without compromising compliance 

Importantly, there’s no need for a full rip and replace. Credit Workplace can be deployed incrementally, keeping the systems that already work while establishing a clean data foundation that supports end-to-end transparency.  

While other solutions focus on analytics or loan origination alone, Credit Workplace connects every step of the credit lifecycle. 

How pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank modernized its credit processes 

Europe’s leading specialist lenders for commercial real estate and public sector finance, pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb) set out to modernize its credit operations. The goal was clear: replace manual workarounds and fragmented systems with a scalable foundation for growth. 

pbb managed high-value, cross-border deals but its internal infrastructure was slowing things down. Credit decisions were being made through a patchwork of spreadsheets, email threads, and disparate tools, making it difficult to track deal progress or enforce consistent risk policies across jurisdictions. 

SAP Fioneer’s Credit Workplace helped change that. Built for structured lending environments, the platform enabled pbb to consolidate its deal workflows, improve transparency, and build governance into every step of the credit lifecycle. 

By capturing decision-grade data at the point of origination, pbb could ensure clean, reusable information flowed through underwriting, approvals, and servicing. Custom workflows aligned with internal decisioning processes, while embedded documentation tools replaced the need for offline templates and email attachments. 

Perhaps most importantly, every stakeholder from front-office originators to portfolio managers gained live insight into the same credit risk data, enabling faster and more informed decisions. 

As a result, pbb: 

• Reduced time-to-decision on complex CRE transactions 
• Strengthened compliance and audit readiness across markets 
• Delivered a more streamlined, responsive experience to commercial borrowers 

The transformation not only modernized pbb’s credit operations, but also positioned the bank to grow its lending book without adding operational complexity. Read the full case study here.  

Modern commercial credit risk management starts with a connected solution 

Commercial lending is too important and complex to be managed across spreadsheets and siloed systems. From infrastructure and logistics to commercial real estate, demand is rising but without integrated tools, banks risk falling short on both compliance and speed. 

SAP Fioneer’s Credit Workplace offers a platform for commercial credit risk management with: 

• One workspace for high-quality, auditable deal data 
• Configurable workflows and approval logic 
• Seamless integration across origination, underwriting, and portfolio oversight 

Banks like pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank are already using Credit Workplace to update their lending stack, improve decision-making, and grow with confidence. 

Ready to see how Credit Workplace could work in your organization? Request a personalized demo here.