During Credit Connect’s Think Tank event (18 March), our CEO, Susan Rann, discussed the role of Open Banking within the collections industry and how it can support lenders manage the large volumes of customers who have fallen into arrears or are coming to the end of payment holidays.
Susan said: “Finding ways of doing this digitally has played a huge part and should continue to play an important role.”
But what do those within the collections industry actually think – and how do they feel Open Banking can meet the increasing demand to provide digital customer journeys – from both the regulator and consumers themselves?
Feedback from our survey is overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of respondents saying they believe Open Banking makes the collections process more efficient, saves customer time and could be useful for agents as well as customers.
The audience did highlight their thoughts about potential challenges though, particularly when dealing with cases that incorporate multiple borrowers and/or accounts.
Categorisation accuracy was also flagged as a challenge – plus, the audience was split on whether they thought Open Banking only provides historical data and doesn’t reflect a customer’s current situation or affordability. However, these are both elements which can be enhanced as the technology develops.
Despite the potential challenges, almost half of respondents said they really do think Open Banking enhances the way customer information is verified and only a small number believe OB leads to customer disengagement due to no direct contact.
The fact more than half of the audience strongly believe gaining customer consent to carry out Open Banking is a challenge shows more needs to be done to communicate the benefits of this technology – which will hopefully snowball as more lenders and customers adopt it.
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Susan commented about the Think Tank event: “It was great to be part of the Think Tank and discuss the role of Open Banking in the collections process with other people from across the industry.
“Here at Paylink Solutions, we’re providing our clients with digital tools to enable customers to access a digital platform and provide all the data required to carry out affordability assessments in the quickest and easiest way – which ultimately leads to payment plans being agreed between consumers and lenders.
“Across the numerous lenders using our different APP journeys, we see an average 60% uptake in customers consenting to pull their affordability data through the Open Banking part of our journey, and only a 3% drop off after that point.
“Open Banking improves the speed and accuracy in the collection of affordability assessment data and allows agents on the phone to focus on providing the right outcomes to those customers who are more vulnerable and in need of further advice.”
Find out how Paylink Solutions can benefit your business here.
