RedAmberGreen Q1 2023

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Customer stories We work with some of the best innovators in the industry. Click on a story to learn more.

Letter from the editor

Building societies

Welcome to your new look RedAmberGreen

Get in touch Call us +44 (0) 2394 211010 Email us info@lendingmetrics.com Visit our website www.lendingmetrics.com

“With the help of the LendingMetrics team, we we have developed a solution that will allow us to focus on the details of the case and arrive at a decision quickly.” Darren Ditchburn, Chief Customer Officer at Darlington Building Society

Specialist finance

“We can change things within minutes – it’s brilliant!” Dave Hindle, Chief Executive Officer at Propensio Finance

Hello there! Glad to see you back for another edition of our quarterly look at goings-on at LendingMetrics, thoughts and comments on the topics du jour, and notable stories from the industry at large. This quarter, I had hoped not to dwell on economic uncertainty as we have done in recent issues. Naturally such turbulent times do lend themselves to heated debate and educated speculation, yet surely such discussion has worn itself thin? Well, we certainly didn’t count on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to bring us back to the topic of our economic future once more, but here we are. Fortunately there’s another “hot button” topic for us to consider: the imminent rise of AI, and its potential impact on the financial world. I believe the technology as it exists today is very much in its infancy, and thus it would be premature to declare AI the next big technological revolution – or the harbinger of humanity’s downfall. However, there are plenty of pros and cons up for discussion – say, in a magazine like RedAmberGreen?

In other news, we’ve got plenty to say about our Auto Decision Platform this quarter. We welcome The Money Platform, we’ve got a fresh customer story from the data- driven team at Merchant Money, and our CTO Neil Williams sheds some light on the facts and figures behind ADP’s success. We’ve also done the rounds and collated a selection of feedback from our customers. But that’s not all! We’ve welcomed a few new faces here at LendingMetrics (including yours truly), some of whom joined us for our Spring Social event (also yours truly – I wouldn’t miss a chance for a get-together). Oh, and did I mention we’ve won our first award of 2023? That’s right, there’s been a whole lot going on around these parts. I reckon it’s time I signed off and let you get to the good stuff. As always, thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you in the next one!

Consumer lending SME lending

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“LendingMetrics [is] helping us to quickly and reliably assess customer affordability in line with our strong focus on responsible lending.” "We see this as a long-term relationship, and we’re delighted that we picked LendingMetrics as a partner" Malcolm Workman, COO at Shire Leasing

Car finance

“We’ve had a lot of support from the LendingMetrics team to establish how we can get the most out of ADP and we’re looking forward to getting started with the solution.” Ken Doyle, Head of Credit Risk and Data Strategy at Specialist Motor Finance Ltd

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Mortgages

“The partnership with LendingMetrics has allowed us to provide a scalable offering, increase our volume capability and improve both broker and consumer journeys, thus delivering more successful outcomes.” Buster Tolfree, Commercial Director of Mortgages at United Trust Bank

Consumer lending

“ADP is second to none for champion/ challenger testing. It has enabled us to confidently propose and execute changes in the knowledge that the objective is achievable.” Leon R Tunnicliff, Global Head of Credit Risk & Fraud at etika

Luke Atkin Digital Marketing Executive

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In this issue

15 Continued evolution

06 In the news 08 Is a change in the air?

We recently caught up with Steve Daly at Evolution Money to find out how the business has benefited from ADP over the last few years.

Is the economic rollercoaster we've been riding finally settling down? LendingMetrics' David Wylie looks at the impact global events have had, and our upcoming economic outlook in 2023 and beyond.

16 Breaking the mould

This pioneering peer-to-peer lender has signed on with LendingMetrics' ADP Read how this empowering and transparent SME lender has satisfied their drive for data with the process-optimising power of ADP 20 Customer stories: Merchant Money 18 The Money Platform adopts ADP We hear from some of our customers about how ADP has helped them overcome challenges.

10 Company updates

LendingMetrics gets set for growth with new hires, and pulls off its first award win of the year, in this quarter's company updates.

12 AI decisioning: a calculated risk

Is it the future of finance, or a risky venture? One thing's for sure: AI is here to stay. We weigh up the pros and cons of this revolutionary tech.

18 16

14 The fast and the factual

LendingMetrics CTO Neil WIlliams talks us through the speed and reliability of ADP

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In the news

More fines for gaming sector

Poor customer screening is exposing gaming companies to large regulatory fines, according to LendingMetrics’ David Wylie. The firm’s Commercial Director said that the recent £19.2m fine of William Hill for ‘widespread and alarming’ social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures, highlighted what is a worrying issue in the gaming industry. ‘There are too many operators who are not paying enough attention to how much more regulatory oversight there now is in this sector. The era of insufficient client checks in this industry is over. This is not something that you can avoid, as this gigantic fine has shown,’ he said. Failures identified by the regulator included allowing a customer to open

a new account and spend £23,000 in just 20 minutes without any checks. Another social responsibility failure identified was failing to conduct any checks and allowing a different customer to open an account and spend £18,000 in 24 hours. A third customer was able to spend £32,500 over two days, also without any checks. LendingMetrics has been having conversations with gaming operators over the past four years designed to alert them to the dangers of much tighter consumer safeguarding and affordability checks. ‘I have been telling them of the uncomfortable similarity with the payday lending sector, in which there were many successful firms that did not see the massive effect regulation was going to have on their business models. They did not have the technology in place to meet the new standards, and this led to large

numbers of them being hit by fines and mis-selling claims.’ It is essential that gaming providers ensure they have real-time checks in place that include all key income and spending data, and they must always be able to point to a convincing electronic audit trail to justify their actions. ‘Those that do not invest in technology, such as our own ADP, are going to find things very difficult going forward.’ A spokesperson for William Hill parent company 888 said that the settlement relates to the period when William Hill was under the previous ownership and management. The company was purchased by 888 from Caesar's Entertainment in July 2022. After William Hill was acquired, the company quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan.

Apple takes a bite out of BNPL

The predicted move by tech giants into finance has begun, with Apple announcing the launch of a buy-now pay-later offer. Apple Pay Later went live at the end of March when a select group of US consumers received invitations to join the scheme. The lending facility is tapped via the Wallet function of the iPhone and allows users to pay for online goods and in-app services in four payments spread over six weeks. It will become more widely available to US consumers in the weeks ahead, but a UK launch date has not been disclosed. The zero-interest zero-fee service will be embedded into the iPhone operating system, which accounts for 27% of smartphones worldwide..

Loans of US$30-1,000 are provided through the wholly-owned subsidiary Apple Financing, but since Apple lacks a license to issue payment credentials, Mastercard is allowing access to its network. Users can apply for a loan within Wallet with no impact to their credit. They will then be prompted to enter the amount they want to borrow and agree to the Apple Pay Later terms. A ‘soft credit pull’ will be conducted during the application process to check the consumer’s financial position before taking on the loan. After a user is approved, they will see the Pay Later option when they select Apple Pay at checkout online and in apps on iPhone and iPad, and can use Apple Pay Later to make the purchase. Once Apple Pay Later is set up, users can also apply for a loan directly at the checkout when making a purchase.

Users will be able to view, track and manage all their loans in one place. With Apple Pay Later in Wallet, they can see the total amount due for all of their existing loans, as well as the total amount due in the next 30 days. They can also choose to view all upcoming payments on a calendar in Wallet to help track and plan payments. Before a payment is due, users will receive notifications via Wallet and email so they can plan accordingly. Borrowers will be asked to link a debit card from Wallet as their loan repayment method. Apple says credit cards will not be accepted.

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Is a change in the air?

CPI so high, have now gone into reverse with wholesale energy prices halving over the past three months. And imported goods’ cost is down (UK Producer Price Index fell in November and December) as many of the production difficulties faced post Covid have eased. This markedly changed outlook for inflation and, albeit to a lesser extent, interest rates is going to usher in a more comfortable lending environment. Although mortgage interest rates are not going to fall nearly as fast as inflation, we can expect a stabilisation of rates with gradual falls starting to benefit the nine million who currently have to finance mortgage payments. Already, three, five and 10--year fixes have been falling (Virgin Money recently unveiled a 10-year fix for 3.99% (£1,188 fees)). This could turn out to be well timed for

the present government. Some might say the Conservatives appear to be ‘lining up their ducks’ in preparation for an election call sometime in mid 2024. Rishi Sunak is obliged to hold an election by January 2025 at the latest. But will the 2023 Budget hike in Corporation Tax pave the way for healthier public finances and a giveaway Budget in 2024, followed by an earlier election? Things certainly seem to be shaping up for just such a scenario. The Prime Minister recently flagged five goals for 2023 that he wants the electorate to judge him on (halve inflation, grow the economy, stop migrant boats, curb debt and cut NHS waiting lists). Perhaps the government intends to time the successful delivery of these in early 2024 with much lower inflation, falling interest rates and a timely

upswing in consumer sentiment. If I were an election adviser looking at Labour’s present 20-point lead, I might be viewing this as the strategy most likely to give the Tories a chance of re-election. Putting aside the political considerations about whether the country would be better off with a Labour or Tory government in 2024/25, this changing economic backdrop is obviously going to be good news for those of us involved in the finance sector. Certainly it is one that is refreshingly different from the dismal one we were experiencing during the dark days of 2022.

Are we set for a return to economic stability followed by an upswing in consumer sentiment and an earlier-than-expected general election?

Is it possible that the economic rollercoaster ride that we have all been experiencing in recent months is almost over? In the distance we can see the barriers at the end of the track, and the possibility we can sigh with relief and safely alight. Sure, the Silicon Valley Bank’s failure, followed by problems at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, have jolted our carriage unexpectedly, but we would be forgiven for expecting normal service to be resumed shortly. We are looking forward to putting behind us the drama of wildly fluctuating inflation and interest rates, together with the shambolic “KamiKwasi” budget. No one wants a repeat any time soon of the cortisol rush they experienced in 2022, when those in charge managed to engineer both an increase in the inflation rate

from 4% to 11% within the space of nine months, plus an interest rate hike from 0.5% to 4% over a similar period. Fortunately, with Spring in the air, it now looks likely that the economy is reverting to a more stable and predictable trajectory, underpinned by the prospect of much lower inflation, sensible interest rates and a rather boring budget. In this climate, boring is good! All those doomsday-like macroeconomic factors that were lined-up in the closing months of 2022 are becoming smaller in our collective rear-view mirrors. The Ukraine War has not led to unleaded at £5 per litre or queues at the petrol pumps as some suggested, nor has it resulted in empty supermarket shelves and blackouts, as others would have had us believe. Inflation, which did take on scary dimensions in October/November, has

peaked and is predicted to fall back by the summer and go even lower by Christmas, a wage price spiral is not on the cards. And the public sector strikes that threatened a Winter of Discontent have not been as disruptive as some of the unions would have liked. There continue to be problems with the NHS that have undoubtedly been exacerbated by the industrial action, but the rail and teaching disputes have not brought the country to a halt and seem to have been resolved. Drilling into the detail, the current Consumer Price Index rise of 10.4% is now forecast to more than halve to 4% by the Summer (Bank of England) and hit 2% as the year closes (CitiBank predicts 2.3% in November; Investec 1.6% in December). Believe it or not, the OBR forecast even predicts deflation from late 2024 through to mid 2026. The energy and food prices that drove

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Company updates

New faces, new growth

Best in the business

LendingMetrics focuses on recruitment in a boost to business growth The financial sector never stands still. Especially as we’ve seen in recent times, businesses can ill afford to stagnate as the industry shifts around them – and LendingMetrics is no exception. As part of the fintech firm’s growth strategy, it has welcomed multiple new appointees over the past few weeks and months. These new staff fill roles across all facets of the business, from technical operations to marketing to HR. New appointments bring with them varying levels of experience, and LendingMetrics offers equitable opportunities to each. Juniors and graduates are given the support and development they need to build skills and grow accustomed to their role, while senior management is offered ample oversight of existing processes and room to make them their own. “There are clear and concise processes in place which allow for a much easier training path,” says Carla Smith, newly appointed Sales & Marketing Operations Manager. “I’ve been able to get stuck in from the start which, for me personally, adds to a better learning experience.”

We’re thrilled to announce we have been recognised at the SME News Business Elite Awards for the third year running! This year we’ve brought home the title of UK Fintech Company of the Year, having previously been awarded “Best Credit Reference Agency” and 'Best Credit Data and Risk Technology Solutions Agency” in 2021 and 2022 respectively. The Business Elite Awards winners for 2023 were handpicked by SME News Magazine’s panel of industry experts, based purely on comprehensive analysis and research undertaken by the wider group. Each year, SME News look to celebrate those enterprises who consistently provide the best services and products for their clients, allowing them to stand out within their representative fields. This tried and tested approach ensures that they award on merit, not popularity, and recognise the very best in business. They award those SMEs that are succeeding in their endeavours, innovating, growing and improving. This award is LendingMetrics’ first win of the year, following a string of wins throughout 2022 which culminated in the company topping the annual Credit & Collections Technology company power list. We hope to continue to be recognised for our commitment to disruptive technology throughout the year.

Building a company culture which not only supports its staff in their day-to-day roles, but champions their future personal development, is key to LendingMetrics’ ongoing plans. “Since joining LendingMetrics I have really enjoyed working in an environment where I feel supported in my role, appreciated for the work I do and valued as an employee.,” says Faye Graham, Recruitment and HR Assistant. David Wylie, Commercial Director at LendingMetrics, echoes this culture-centric sentiment. “Finding the right people is crucial. Not everyone is a good fit for a company and its culture, even if they fit the job spec for the role, so we always take this into account when interviewing to ensure new hires gel with the rest of the team.” The team aims to continue this expansion throughout 2023. If you’d like to learn more about the opportunities available, as well as the perks of working for LendingMetrics, visit our careers page .

Faye Graham Recruitment & HR Assistant

Luke Atkin Digital Marketing Executive

Gopika Anil Junior Project Manager

Carla Smith Sales & Marketing Operations Manager

Curious about our previous wins? We took home a grand total of six awards throughout 2022. You can read more about them, and how we topped the Credit Collections and Technology Power 20 list, on our blog .

Maya Kubalova Junior Software Engineer

Tanya Stone Sales Operations Assistant

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AI in decisioning: a calculated risk

For these and other reasons, the FCA has intimated that it may not be possible to manage AI within the existing regulatory framework. Fine-tuning what we have already may not be enough, it suggests, so a new approach could be needed. It seems to be making it clear that while lenders might like the idea of AI, they should be very careful to ensure they do not lose the ability to explain to the regulator and the customer why precisely they were (or were not) granted credit. Trying to reverse-engineer an AI algorithm-based decision in front of a tribunal will not cut it. Given the level of uncertainty surrounding the use of AI, we at LendingMetrics certainly think caution should be exercised. It may be wise to wait for more visibility around the level of risk posed by the technology, and further clarity from the regulator. Lending that is not underpinned by rigorous, documentable decision making has always been unwise. The finance industry has had to learn that lesson the hard way. It is undoubtedly one we should not forget. David Wylie is Commercial Director of LendingMetrics.

We asked ChatGPT for comment on the use of AI in credit decisioning. Here’s what it had to say... Pros: Increased efficiency: AI can automate many tasks that were previously done manually, resulting in increased efficiency and cost savings. Better risk management: AI can help identify and manage risks in financial portfolios, which can reduce the likelihood of losses. Improved fraud detection: AI can be used to identify fraudulent transactions and prevent them from occurring, improving security. Better customer service: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can provide 24/7 customer service, answering customer queries and resolving issues quickly. Enhanced personalization: AI can analyze customer data to offer personalized financial advice and recommendations. Cons: Limited human oversight: AI systems can make errors and produce unintended consequences, which can be difficult to identify and correct without human oversight. Bias: AI algorithms can perpetuate biases if they are trained on biased data or if the people designing them are not diverse. Ethical concerns: The use of AI in finance raises ethical concerns around privacy, data security, and transparency. Lack of accountability: It can be difficult to hold an AI system accountable for its decisions and actions, which can create legal and ethical challenges. Reduced human interaction: AI may reduce the need for human interaction in finance, which can negatively impact the customer experience and lead to job losses.

New faces, new growth Artificial intelligence is set to change the face of the finance industry in the years ahead whether we like it or not. David Wylie asks whether lenders are fully aware of the regulatory and reputational risks it poses.

Glance through the marketing material of software platforms and it will not be long before you notice a new emphasis on the use of artificial intelligence. Some technology providers present it as the new frontier for finance providers looking to further optimise their decision making. What better way to introduce efficiencies, than to delegate the whole process to a hyper- sophisticated algorithm? The marketing pitch is seductive, but it bears some investigation. If you drill down into the products that such software companies are promoting, you often discover that they do not really amount to what most would define as artificial intelligence. It’s easy to co-opt the ‘AI’ moniker to make something appear more impressive than it actually is. Perhaps this is just as well, because the technology is not something regulators are too enthusiastic about. In the UK, US and Australia, they have expressed misgivings about AI’s use when generating lending decisions.

Their fear is that, if done prematurely, it may actually not improve decision- making at all, and lenders had better beware of the consequences . The US’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has cautioned lenders and intermediaries that ‘agency’ cannot be attributed to AI systems, given that this risks removing accountability for decision-making away from firms. Companies are not absolved of their legal responsibilities when they let a black-box model make lending decisions, it cautions. The law gives every applicant the right to a specific explanation if their application for credit is denied, and that right is not diminished simply because a company takes credit decisions using a complex algorithm that it doesn’t understand. The bottom line is that complex algorithms must provide specific and accurate explanations for denying credit applications, it says. Reading between the lines, the implication is that many AI platforms cannot do this and therefore run the risk of future liability claims. In the UK, this issue was identified in a recent Bank of England/FCA report, which suggested ‘lack of AI explainability’ posed a potential reputational and regulatory hazard. [Bank of England/ FCA: Machine Learning in UK Financial Institutions]. The implicit question again posed is: would a company be able to justify its decision when facing a mis- selling claim?

It is not that the AI necessarily made the wrong decision - it may well be the right decision - it is whether the lender is able to demonstrate to a client how the decision was arrived at in the first place. That the decision is comprehensively evidenced is particularly important because AI is already known to be prone to what is referred to as AI bias, AI model risk, or, in everyday parlance, the law of unintended consequences. Model bias occurs during the AI training process and can ‘bake-in’ certain outcomes. Automated model-selection tools can exacerbate risk, as can incomplete datasets. For example, the historical gender data gap that has given us more male- oriented data than female, could well lead to skewed lender affordability decisions based on sex. Furthermore, the monitoring of such risk within AI is introduced ‘post- implementation’, where ‘hyper-tuned’ models can be highly susceptible to data drift and lack of meaningful oversight. These biases would be next to impossible to defend if they were found to underpin poor decision making. Should their existence be established, for example via a mis-selling tribunal, they would make any lender vulnerable to additional actions, where all those that feel similarly impacted would have a right to redress.

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The fast and the factual

Continued evolution in speed and flexibility

Neil Williams, Chief Technology Officer at LendingMetrics shares the facts about ADP’s speed and reliability

Four years on, we return to Evolution Money to learn how LendingMetrics’ ADP has transformed the way they do business.

Here at LendingMetrics, we often talk about the speed of our Auto Decision Platform. But what does that mean and why is it important? Decisioning at high volumes requires a responsive, high-speed platform. Steve Daly of Evolution Money, who we interviewed recently, tells us the average decisioning time of their ADP installation is just 1.6 seconds (and that includes the time it takes for third-party data providers and credit reference agencies to send ADP the data it uses to help execute the decision). But is that speed common amongst our customers, or is Steve an outlier? Customers’ decision engines vary massively in their content and number of rules; does this affect their speed?

We looked across a sampling of LendingMetrics’ customer data to find out. For instance, between a customer running an ADP decision engine with 500 rules and actions (what we refer to as “objects”) to process, and another customer with a massive 3,000 objects to process, the difference in processing time is negligible, less than 15 milliseconds in fact. The reason for this impressive speed is scalability. “ADP was designed with complex decisioning at high volume in mind,” explains Neil Williams, Chief Technology Officer at LendingMetrics. “We’ve optimised our platform to ensure that decision engines can process any number of rules almost instantaneously.” That being the case, where does the difference in response times between customers come from? “The biggest

impact on decisioning times comes from making calls out to third-party data sources like credit bureaus,” explains Neil. “We work hard to mitigate that call time. When we’re working with our customers to tailor ADP to their needs, one of the key factors we consider is minimising time spent talking to the likes of Equifax or Experian, to take full advantage of ADP’s speed.” We also asked Neil about ADP's uptime and service level agreements, about which his answer was much more direct. "ADP's uptime is 99.999%, and we've never come close to breaking our SLAs." The numbers don't lie; it's clear that speed and reliability are non-issues for ADP customers at any volume. To learn more about what that blistering speed can be used for, visit our website .

Since it was founded in 2011, Evolution Money has been a leader in the unsecured and secured lending market. Named one of the fastest growing companies in 2016 and 2017 by The Sunday Times Fast Track 100, Evolution Money believes that consumer access to finance shouldn’t be dictated solely by a credit score or an automated computer response alone. The company adopted LendingMetrics’ Auto Decision Platform in 2019 to boost its lending volumes and provide invaluable support to its underwriting team.

We travelled to the heart of Manchester to chat with IT Director Steve Daly about the ongoing impact ADP has had on the business. ADP has enabled Evolution Money to increase its lending volumes by around 250% in the last 12 months alone, with each decision being resolved in roughly 1.6 seconds. The greatest value ADP has offered the business is in adaptability; the platform’s ability to make rapid changes to decisioning rules has proven invaluable in the wake of the COVID pandemic, Bank of England base rate changes, and further economic turbulence. You can watch our full customer story with Steve Daly on our website .

“If we were dealing with this number of customers four or five years ago, we would’ve needed a lot more staff to service those customers, and the reality is we probably couldn’t. Without ADP we wouldn’t be able to decision against the volume we’ve got today.”

Steve Daly IT Director, Evolution Money

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We decided to look at other sectors and ADP was crucial to us in deciding who our customers are, and determining what type of customer to target. We used the testing facility within ADP, we ran retro analysis, we needed to make sure we were ahead of the risk before the risk happened. Martin Rix , Chief Commercial Officer, Loans 2 Go

CONTROLLING RISK

Key to the decisioning process is risk management. Lenders need to be able to make policy adjustments on-the-fly to suit their risk appetite. ADP empowers lenders to run analysis on customer data and make rapid changes to accommodate shifting risk tolerance.

Breaking the mould

We can change things within minutes – it’s brilliant! Dave Hindle , Chief Executive Officer, Propensio Finance

Auto-assisted underwriting has transformed back office operations. We've highlighted comments from lenders who have adopted our award-winning underwriting platform ADP.

FOCUS ON SERVICE

When we first started to work with LendingMetrics we saw the potential of assisted decision engines and the benefits they would bring our business. We pride ourselves on the level of service and personal approach we have on each case and, with the help of the LendingMetrics team, believe we have developed a solution that will allow us to focus on the details of the case and arrive at a decision quickly, in a way that maintains our quality of service. Darren Ditchburn Chief Customer Officer at Darlington Building Society

No two lenders are identical. Using off-the-shelf software runs the risk of not meeting a business' needs. The LendingMetrics team work closely with clients to configure ADP to meet their specific requirements, and can provide ongoing support as well as professional services such as credit risk analysis and scorecard design.

FASTER DECISIONING

When we started 12 years ago, typically with every loan we wrote, it was a case of getting a customer credit file and having an underwriter manually question every line. We’ve been using LendingMetrics for four to five years. Over the last 12 months, we’ve increased the number of cases through the platform by about 250% - and that will continue to grow. The speed of the engine has not faltered. We’re still running at about

One of the most immediate challenges lenders face in their desire to grow, is speed. Manual underwriting simply can't process the volume of applications associated with even medium-sized lenders, let alone huge household names. ADP's ultra-fast decisioning allows lenders to focus on other aspects of the process, without worrying that their systems won't be able to keep up.

LendingMetrics were very responsive with our requests, which we don’t believe is what we would have experienced with a larger company. The speed with which we can change underwriting rules is fantastic. Richard Pinch , Vestigo

A STRONG FOUNDATION

1.5 to 1.6 seconds per decision with ADP. Steve Daly , IT Director, Evolution Money

A lender may feel they can build their own decisioning system in-house, based on the existing processes they've been using and built to meet their business needs. But for the majority of SMEs, this isn't practical. ADP serves as a rock-solid foundation built upon combined decades of experience in the credit risk industry, and LendingMetrics' team work with clients to further tailor it to meet their needs.

ADAPTABLE

We considered building something ourselves, but the amount of effort, time and cost to build it. And then you’re straight into what staff we have to maintain it, and what if they leave. The ADP platfrom was already there, the user interface was easy to change: it was the right way to go. To make changes is relatively easy, you don’t need to be a developer. If you can use Excel, you can make changes relatively seamlessly. If there are challenges, LendingMetrics is just a call away. Steve Daly , IT Director, Evolution Money

ADP is second to none for champion/challenger testing. It has enabled us to confidently propose and execute changes in the knowledge that the objective is achievable. Leon R Tunnicliff , Global Head of Credit Risk & Fraud, etika

The lending landscape is ever- changing. Lenders face a near- constant need to adjust their offerings in response to market shifts and desire for growth, as well as pressure to adapt to external factors such as rate changes and economic downturns. At the core of ADP is the ability to rapidly make changes and deploy updated rules, scorecards, or even entirely new decision engines.

The partnership with LendingMetrics has allowed us to provide a scalable offering, increase our volume capability and improve both broker and consumer journeys to deliver more successful outcomes. Buster Tolfree Commercial Director of Mortgages at United Trust Bank

To learn more about how ADP can meet and exceed your lending challenges, visit our website.

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The Money Platform adopts ADP

The peer-to-peer lender partners up with LendingMetrics as part of its rapid growth strategy

Pioneering peer-to- peer lender The Money Platform is partnering with LendingMetrics to take advantage of their industry leading Auto Decision Platform. ADP will allow the firm to boost their decisioning speed and flexibility, while empowering their customers with greater transparency and choice. The Money Platform enables an alternative line of credit for ’thin-file’ customers, by “connecting borrowers and lenders” without the hassle of financial institutions acting as middlemen. The platform is secure, transparent, and offers significant benefit to both borrowers and lenders.

As part of their strategy for ongoing, rapid growth within the consumer credit lending space and new product rollout, The Money Platform sought to partner with a solution which could provide for the high volume of transactions they required, as well as enabling them to respond faster than competitors to changes in the lending landscape. As a consumer lender, the current climate of macroeconomic change necessitated a solution which could roll out changes quickly to meet their customers’ individual challenges. They made the decision to adopt LendingMetrics’ innovative Auto Decision Platform to deliver greater flexibility. Building on The Money Platform’s existing capabilities and data models, ADP will further power the platform with high-speed and high-volume

credit decisioning tools. The ability to perform affordability checks rapidly across an array of integrated data sources will prove useful to the business, as its peer-to-peer offering requires it to thoroughly vet lenders and borrowers. “We’re pleased that The Money Platform has decided that ADP offers the best, future proofed solution to their and their customers’ challenges,” says David Wylie, Commercial Director of LendingMetrics. “Fast and reliable automated decisioning is key to their ongoing vision, and LendingMetrics are delighted to be delivering our award- winning solution to help achieve their goals. "Our team is looking forward to helping them attain complete autonomy over their decisioning logic, as well as supporting them in their future endeavours.”

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Customer story: Merchant Money

Merchant Money boosts data-driven approach with LendingMetrics' ADP

Since 2013, Merchant Money has provided unsecured business loans and alternative finance to SMEs across the UK. The firm’s focus is constant – to ensure that its clients enjoy the clarity of transparent lending and the financial confidence to realise their business potential. It has helped countless businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, working closely with other industry experts to the highest standards.

This led them to choose LendingMetrics' Auto Decision Platform as their strategic partner for implementing the technology.

However, initial reservations around the sophisticated capabilities of ADP, the LendingMetrics team were able to rapidly accustom them to the platform and involve them heavily in the implementation and launch process, which led to valuable feedback. despite their “Our team is very data-driven,” says Jake Furman, Head of Products at Merchant Money. “Understanding what ADP allows us to do with data has led to a lot of conversations about optimisation with LendingMetrics.” Indeed, working with data – and more importantly, learning from that data and being able to make informed revisions to the decisioning process – is one of the key pillars which underpins ADP’s design.

The implementation

The team at Merchant Money are not tech experts, nor should they be; their focus is on excellence in lending, not technology. Thus, they desired a strategic partner who could guide them through the implementation process – a request which LendingMetrics was happy to fulfil.

The challenge

In 2020, Merchant Money was accredited by the British Business Bank to facilitate business lending during the COVID-19 pandemic. This of course was great news, but it also served to highlight any operational pain points or pitfalls within the business. Looking at their decisioning funnel, Merchant Money saw ample room to improve processes. While Merchant Money wanted to enhance their decision-making process through automation, they recognised the value of their expert underwriters and did not wish to replace them with a single algorithm. Instead, they aimed to transition to an "assisted decisioning" model and identified core processes that could be augmented with an automated system.

The future Jake and the team at Merchant Money believe that the perfect decision engine is somewhere out there. The business plans to push further into embedded finance, implementing more products and always remaining true to its data- driven approach. They are also weighing up the possibility of introducing AI to support their decisioning process, to further analyse and learn from customer data. Jake concludes: "We see ADP as central to our strategy moving forward."

It was this aspect in particular which intertwined the two teams in a feedback loop throughout the implementation phase, ultimately leading to the platform being highly tailored to Merchant Money’s requirements. This close working relationship between the teams was much appreciated. “I've enjoyed working with the LM team,” Jake continues. “The biggest compliment I can pay them is they’re very flexible; - it's never just ‘computer says no’, it's ‘let’s look into this’.”