A preparation checklist for changing a lending system

Treat migration as an operational project

Moving a lending system involves people, financial records and day-to-day controls. Appoint business and technical owners before agreeing a launch date.

This checklist supports project planning. Your finance, legal and compliance advisers must confirm the rules and approvals that apply to your institution. A software feature alone does not establish compliance.

Know what needs to move

• Customer and account records, with clear ownership and access restrictions.
• Loan balances, repayment schedules, charges and transaction history.
• Savings, deposits and general-ledger information where relevant.
• Documents, reports, user roles and connections to other systems.

Reconcile a trial migration

Use an approved, protected test environment. Map old fields to new ones, document exceptions and compare record counts and balances with the source system.

The business owners should check opening balances, schedules, rounding, arrears and reports. Keep a list of differences and their resolutions. Do not rely only on a successful file import.

Prepare the cutover and recovery plan

• Agree the last transaction time on the old system and how late transactions will be handled.
• Define who authorises the switch and what checks must pass.
• Test backup and recovery, including the point at which you would stop or roll back.
• Prepare staff training, customer communications where needed and support cover.

What to discuss with a supplier

Ask which migration tasks, controls, reports and integrations are included. Confirm evidence for any security or regulatory claims, the hosting location, access arrangements, data exports and support terms.

Do not send real customer data through a website enquiry. Start with a general description of the systems, branches and migration challenge.