Author: Jessica Owen

Oneiro are pleased to announce this strategic partnership that brings together Centralis‘ 20 years of client service and Oneiro’s purpose-built loan technology. The business will use Oneiro Solutions’ DLX platform as the technology foundation for administering transactions and delivering a modern experience for borrowers, sponsors and lenders.

Digital capability from day one

Loan agency teams sit at the centre of complex transactions. They coordinate information, obligations, payments and communications across multiple parties. When these activities rely on disconnected systems, spreadsheets and email, the operational burden grows quickly. And so does the difficulty of scaling without adding risk.

Centralis chose DLX to bring these activities together in a dedicated loan administration environment. Rather than treating technology as a back-office utility, the firm is making it part of the design of its service, supporting stronger control for its team and clearer, more timely information for clients and counterparties.

One platform for the transaction lifecycle

DLX gives the Centralis loan agency team a single place to manage transaction data and operational activity across counterparties. Its capabilities include:

• Automated workflows
• Covenant, security, rate and fee management
• Payment tracking
• Document generation and storage
• Structured and configurable reporting

With underlying loan data available in real time, the team can coordinate activity more efficiently and communicate information through a consistent digital channel.

A modern experience for teams and clients

Joe Ellis-Grewal, Head of Loan Agency at Centralis, said “When I first joined Centralis I knew immediately that DLX needed to be our system of choice. Having used other platforms in previous roles and being familiar with other providers in the market, I believe DLX is a cut above, both in terms of the internal user experience from an operational perspective and the experience it provides for clients.

“The ability to provide bespoke, real-time reporting to the finance parties, communicate digitally and share information via the platform, handle deals across multiple asset classes and structures, while remaining extremely intuitive and user friendly, are features I have yet to see elsewhere in the market.

“We are aiming to build a best-in-class agency business and this is a significant first step towards achieving this goal. I would like to thank the Oneiro team for their service throughout the initial phases and onboarding, which has been an excellent experience. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with the Oneiro team.”

Supporting the next generation of loan agency

The launch reflects a broader change across corporate and syndicated lending. Market participants increasingly expect the accessibility and transparency they experience in other financial services, while agency teams need technology that can adapt to changing deal requirements without introducing unnecessary complexity.

DLX was created for that environment. Its cloud-native architecture can support a new operation from day one or work alongside existing systems, helping organisations modernise with minimal disruption. By bringing front-to-back loan administration into one scalable platform, DLX enables teams to improve control today while creating capacity for future growth.

Chris Papathanassi, Oneiro’s Founder and CEO, said “We are extremely proud to be in a strategic partnership with Joe and the Centralis team as they launch their loan agency business in 2026. At Oneiro, we strive to modernise and transform the loan agency market through flexible, transparent, intuitive front-to-back technology, built on secure, battle-tested infrastructure.

“This partnership represents a powerful step forward for both of our organisations. By combining our strengths and shared vision, we are unlocking new ways to deliver exceptional value to all clients and counterparties and, in turn, shaping the future of our industry.”

Centralis’ decision to put dedicated technology at the heart of its new offering is an important step for both organisations. It demonstrates what becomes possible when deep service expertise and modern loan administration technology are brought together around a shared goal: making complex lending operations simpler, clearer and more scalable.

Discover DLX

DLX is Oneiro Solutions’ syndicated platform for modern loan operations. It streamlines workflows, accelerates access to data and empowers loan servicing businesses to innovate and scale.

Discover DLX or request a demonstration to explore how the platform could support your loan agency operation.

 

Loan administration is complex by nature. But when routine tasks require excessive manual intervention, reporting takes too long or growth puts increasing pressure on your operations team, the technology beneath your business may be adding to that complexity rather than helping to manage it.

Legacy systems can remain in place for years because they are familiar and replacing them can feel daunting. Over time, however, workarounds become standard practice, inefficiencies are accepted as unavoidable and valuable expertise is spent keeping processes moving instead of improving them.

So how can you tell when your loan administration system has become a barrier to progress? Here are seven warning signs to look for.

1. Your teams rely heavily on spreadsheets and manual workarounds

Spreadsheets are useful tools, but they should not be the infrastructure holding critical loan processes together.

If your teams regularly export data, manipulate it outside the core platform and re-enter the results, the system is no longer providing the functionality they need. The same applies when employees maintain their own trackers, calendars or checklists to manage activity that the platform cannot accommodate.

These workarounds may solve an immediate problem, but they create new ones. Data becomes fragmented, processes vary between individuals and it becomes harder to establish a single, reliable view of a deal. Every manual hand-off also introduces another opportunity for error.

The clearest warning sign is not simply that spreadsheets are being used. It is that the business would struggle to operate without them.

2. The same information is entered more than once

Rekeying data across different screens, tools or systems consumes time without adding value. It also increases the risk of inconsistencies: a change may be reflected in one location but missed in another, leaving teams to investigate which version is correct.

In a modern loan administration environment, information should flow through connected processes. Data captured once should be available wherever it is needed, subject to the appropriate permissions and controls.

When duplication is embedded in day-to-day operations, employees spend more time checking, reconciling and correcting information. That slows processing and diverts experienced people away from higher-value work.

3. Producing reports is slow and labour-intensive

Clients, lenders, management teams and regulators all expect accurate information – and increasingly, they expect it quickly.

If answering a straightforward question requires multiple data extracts, spreadsheet manipulation or help from a small number of system specialists, reporting has become an operational bottleneck. By the time a report is assembled and verified, the information may already be out of date.

A modern platform should make current, reliable data readily accessible. Users should be able to generate the views they need without lengthy preparation or dependence on technical support.

Slow reporting does more than frustrate stakeholders. It delays decisions, reduces transparency and can limit the quality of service you provide.

4. Routine activity depends on a handful of experienced people

Every organisation values specialist knowledge. The risk arises when essential processes depend on knowledge held by only one or two individuals – particularly knowledge of undocumented workarounds, unusual system behaviour or the steps required to complete routine events.

This dependency can make holidays, absences and employee turnover disproportionately disruptive. It also makes it harder to train new team members and scale the operation consistently.

Good technology should embed processes, controls and institutional knowledge into the platform. It should guide users through their work, provide clear audit trails and make the correct next action easier to identify. Expertise can then be applied to exceptions and judgement, rather than used simply to navigate the system.

5. Small changes require disproportionate time and cost

Lending businesses need to respond to new products, evolving regulations, changing client expectations and internal process improvements. If every adjustment requires a lengthy development project or expensive vendor intervention, your technology is dictating the pace at which the business can evolve.

Heavily customised legacy systems are often particularly difficult to change. Years of modifications may make upgrades complicated, while a shortage of people familiar with the underlying technology can increase both cost and risk.

Modern platforms should be configurable to allow organisations to adapt workflows, products, permissions and reporting without rebuilding the system each time. If the answer to every new requirement is ‘the platform cannot support that’ or ‘we will need another workaround’, it may be restricting your strategy as well as your operations.

6. Growth creates pressure rather than efficiency

A growing portfolio should not require operational effort to rise at exactly the same rate. Technology ought to help teams handle more activity through automation, consistent workflows and better access to information.

If every new client, deal or facility creates a near-proportional need for more manual processing and additional headcount, the operating model may not be scalable. Teams can become trapped in a reactive cycle, dealing with increasing volumes while having little capacity to improve the processes causing the pressure.

This matters not only for cost control, but also for service quality and operational resilience. A platform that performs adequately at today’s volumes may become a serious constraint as the business expands or market activity increases.

7. Your system limits the experience you can offer clients and counterparties

Technology increasingly shapes how clients judge a loan agent or servicing provider. They expect timely information, clear communication and confidence that their data is accurate.

When your platform cannot provide real-time visibility, flexible reporting or efficient digital communication, your team must bridge the gap manually. Even excellent service professionals will struggle to deliver a modern experience if the systems supporting them are slow or fragmented.

This can become a competitive issue. The limitation is no longer confined to the back office; it affects how the business is perceived in the market and which services it can credibly offer.

Recognising the cumulative impact

No single spreadsheet or delayed report necessarily means a platform must be replaced. The stronger signal is the cumulative effect of several problems: duplicated effort, limited visibility, key-person dependency, slow change and rising operational risk.

These costs are easy to underestimate because they are spread across teams and absorbed into everyday activity. A useful first step is to document where manual intervention occurs, how long key processes take and which tasks generate the most exceptions. This creates a clearer picture of the true operational impact and provides a baseline against which potential improvements can be measured.

Moving from limitation to opportunity

Replacing a core loan administration system is a significant decision, but continuing with technology that no longer supports the business also carries cost and risk.

The right platform should do more than replicate existing processes on newer technology. It should reduce manual effort, improve data quality, increase transparency and give the organisation room to grow and adapt. Just as importantly, it should be supported by a technology partner that understands the complexity of lending and can partner with your team throughout implementation and beyond.

Recognising the warning signs is the first step. The next is to ask whether your current system supports the business you are building – or merely helps you manage the limitations of the past.

Ready to move forward?

Discover how Oneiro’s DLX can simplify your loan operations, improve visibility and support scalable growth. Speak to our team by emailing info@oneirosolutions.com, we would love show you how DLX can modernise the way you work.