Brought to you by LendingMetrics
Metrics M onthly October 2020 | UK EDITION
In this issue LENDINGMETRICS TURNS 10! We’re celebrating our 10 th Anniversary and with it, a new location for LendingMetrics
In this issue Welcome Page 03
Celebrating 10 years Page 04
In the news Page 06
LendingMetrics updates Page 08
Portal power Page 10
A new partnership Page 12
Auto Decision Platform Page 13
Auto Decision Platform
Gambling sector spotlight Page 14
Case study Page 16
02 | Metrics Monthly Decision Platform (ADP) saves on time, , driving more profits to your bottom line. applicants in real-time, 24 hours a day, and and accurate lending decisi s in milliseconds. winning automated decisioning and collections you in control.
October 2020 | UK Edition
Welcome
Contacts
Welcome back to another issue of Metrics Monthly! This month, we’re celebrating 10 years of innovation, success and disruption of the lending industry as LendingMet- rics turns 10. We’ve released an exciting new video to mark the occasion, which you can watch on page 5. In the news this month, mortgage applications see a surge following the lockdown pause, with £216bn of mort- gage lending forecast for 2020. We also feature an article about London-based SaaS provider Quotevine signing a new agreement with IN-SYNC Credit Ser- vices, which sees the finance special - ist expand its financial offering to gig economy workers. Alongside our 10 year anniversary, LendingMetrics is also announcing a new location for the business’ head office, allowing staff to return to partial working in an office environment and adherence of appropriate COVID-se- cure procedures. Head over to page 8
to see our new location and pictures of the office. Our featured thinkpiece this month looks at how too many mortgage lenders are failing to automate their decision making, even though it’s key to winning leads. You can read the full article here. In gambling sector news, the UK Gam- bling Commission hint at an affordabili- ty consultation in their recent guidelines on how gambling operators should manage their VIP schemes. Find out what this could mean for online gam- bling businesses on page 14. With plenty of industry news and insightful articles, make the most of the change in seasons to sit down with a cup of tea and this October issue of Metrics Monthly! To subscribe to this newsletter and stay up-to-date, visit our homepage and enter your email address by clicking here.
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Metrics Monthly | 03
10 years of innovation, success, and disruption of the lending industry LendingMetrics is celebrating its 10th Birthday by reflecting on the journey so far (and enjoying some cake).
ADP utilises proprietary data solu - tions and is also universally connect- ed to all major CRAs plus many other 3rd parties including Open Banking platforms. ADP is a powerful decision engine builder that puts the lender in control of credit policy changes and allows operational/credit risk staff to control changes in real-time through a comprehensive logic interface and has since gone on to win numerous awards for its market-leading usability. In 2018, LendingMetrics unveiled another cutting-edge product, Open- BankVision (OBV) , the ground-break- ing bank statement data platform that allows companies to make better lending decisions and consumers to take control of their valuable bank transaction data. Having partnered with credit reference agencies previously, LendingMetrics achieved its own CRA status in 2011, and was one of the first such compa - nies to gain FCA permissions in 2015.
Its technology and data infrastructure and “blue-chip” partnership eco-sys - tem focuses on the delivery of robust, scalable and secure affordability, suit- ability and predictive risk solutions to the entire financial sector. Now, on its 10th anniversary, Lend- ingMetrics is leading the way in auto- LendingMetrics’ mission: To be a trusted partner that collaborates with our customers to bring inno- vative, secure and disrup - tively priced technology to market. mated decision technology and is one of the most recognised technology brands in the sector. The company has been accredited with numerous awards for its innovative and cut- ting-edge solutions, including winning ” “
It’s been a whole decade since Lend- ingMetrics, the trading name of Perfect Data Solutions, was born. The financial technology and data special - ist was formed by current CEO David Wylie and CTO Neil Williams, who first met in 2003 whilst working together at a mortgage packaging company. The pair soon realised that the lending industry was severely lacking ade- quate automated decisioning, and set out to create the new technology that would disrupt the industry for good. In 2016, following several years of R&D, the company introduced Auto Decision Platform (ADP) , revolutionising the opportunity for the financial servic - es sector to quickly deliver increased lending volume, a better customer experience and reduced overheads using automated lending decisions.
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Click to watch our 10 year anniversary video and join in the celebrations!
‘Credit Risk Solution’ three times in a row at the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Credit & Collections Technology Awards, as well as “Best Technology Partner – Data, Open Banking & Affordability” and “Best Credit Information Provider” at the 2019 Lending Awards. What’s more, LendingMetrics was named ‘Technology Partner of the Year’ at the Consumer Credit Awards 2020, one of the only awards that are voted for by clients, not judged. About the anniversary, David Wylie said: “We’re thrilled to be celebrating 10 years of LendingMetrics. Over the
past decade, we have built an envia - ble reputation for being a positively disruptive force in the Fintech sector and we have been rewarded for this by seeing so many companies, large and small, public and private, putting their trust in us to help them deliver on their ambitions.” To celebrate the occasion, several LendingMetrics partners joined our team on virtual calls to wish the company Happy Birthday with cake and a glass of champagne.
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Metrics Monthly | 05
In the news IN-SYNC expands its financial offering to gig economy workers
London-based SaaS (software-as-a-service) provider, Q uotevine, has signed a three-year agreement withself-employed finance specialist, IN-SYNCCredit Services.
Quotevine will provide theground-break- ing van funder with Luca, their end-to- end, integrated loan and lease con- tract management platform. It will work in tandem with automated deci- sion-making software from technology company, LendingMetrics to stream- line IN-SYNC’s operations and ensure a smoother journey for its customers. IN-SYNC Credit Services provides pro- fessional courier drivers with a unique and flexible method of financing their vans, as well as supporting logistics SMEs in expanding their fleets. What sets IN-SYNC Credit Services apart is their understanding of the self-em- ployed market. This allows them to underwrite in a way that is not only entirely unique within the market, but means they are able to fund vehicles where others may not. Each year, the Group supports more than 43,000 oper-
atives with tax, VAT and payment servic- es, meaning their close relationship with self-employed people enabled them to notice a challenge that many SMEs in the logistics sector face: getting drivers into a vehicle. For SMEs, operating and managing a fleet of vehicles can be costly, but for self-employed drivers, it can be hard to get approved for finance based on their credit score alone. IN-SYNC Credit Services saw an oppor- tunity to solve this, and their vehicle funding proposition was born. To launch this new service, IN-SYNC have made use of Quotevine’s end-to-end contract management platform and LendingMetrics’ Auto Decision Plat- form (ADP) , to deliver an innovative van financing solution which can be offered at scale to a rapidly expanding market. Quotevine adds value to this proposi-
tion through its full contract lifecycle management: from producing finance proposals to underwriting applications, everything can be managed from one place. By partnering for this particular contract, Quotevine and LendingMet- rics are providing IN-SYNC with an invaluable, future-proofed solution and ensuring they remain not only compet- itive, but also compliant as regulatory changes continue to be introduced. Philip Benké, Head of Business Devel- opment at Quotevine, said: ‘IN-SYNC has always had an innovative business model, involving flexible agreements tailored to its clients, and we were keen to offer a solution that could not only be moulded to its current needs, but also grow with it as it expands. By using Quotevine, IN-SYNC has access to a single system which encompasses all its account management needs.
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Mortgage applications surge following lockdown pause
Combining this solution with Lending- Metrics’ ADP means that it can offer immediate decisions on loan applica- tions, ensuring a smoother experience for both it and its clients.’ He added: ‘This is the first time we have provided such end-to-end capabilities to a single client. We’re committed to drive the industry forward during this histor- ically challenging time. This type of col- laboration, with a forward thinking busi- ness like IN-SYNC, is the first of many, as we strive to cater for customers’ needs in a fast-moving marketplace.’ Rob Buckland –Director of Credit Finance at IN-SYNC Credit Services said, ‘We rec- ognise that customers of today expect real-time, convenient services, tailored specifically to their needs. Therefore, the key to driving an efficient finance offering is an end-to-end automated infrastruc- ture, made possible by platforms provid- ed by Quotevine and LendingMetrics. The key priority for IN-SYNC Credit Services in 2020/21 is to optimise this digital-first platform to engage new business oppor- tunities, maximise existing opportunities and retain clients through exceptional customer service. The infrastructure will enable us to scale our business in a controlled and insightful way, utilising business intelligence to make commer- cial decisions and launch new innova- tive products that meet the needs of the market in which we operate.’ David Wylie – Commercial Director at LendingMetrics commented, ‘Lending- Metrics’ award-winning ADP has become the “go-to” enterprise decisioning solu- tion in the credit industry and we count public and private companies as well as banks amongst our client base. It has been exciting to work with Quotevine to deliver this ground-breaking project for IN-SYNC and we look forward to seeing them leverage the enormous capabilities the platform has to offer’.
Research by consumer credit reporting firm Experian forecast- ed £216bn of mortgage lending in 2020, following mortgage applica - tion increases of 25% year-on-year for both August and September. The data suggests that 1.2 million mortgages will be agreed this year, at a value of £216bn. Whilst this is down on 2019’s £250bn of lending, this is still a positive prediction, following the pause in the market caused by the COVID-19 lockdown earlier in the year. The research also shows that 1.9 million mortgage accounts were subject to an Emergency Payment Holiday as a result of the financial difficulties lenders are facing due to the pandemic. Now, with the Stamp Duty holiday in full swing, a surge of mortgage appli- cations suggests buyers are hoping to take advantage of Chancellor of the Exchequer’s scheme, as well as rethinking about where they might
want to live in an era of increased working from home. Mortgage broker Just Mortgag- es is just one company seeing the increases in demand. The broker saw a record month in September, with a 40% increase on applications compared to last year. John Phil- lips, national operations director for Spicerhaart and Just Mortgages, said: ‘This is a really great time to be a broker. The volume of people looking to move house is higher than anyone may have expected it to be’. With the post-lockdown boost, it is now more important than ever for lenders to ensure homebuyers only borrow what they can afford to repay in the long-term. Whilst affordabil- ity is not a new focus, it now plays an essential part in lenders making responsible decisions, and will con- tinue to be at the forefront of mort- gage lending for some time to come, if not forever.
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Metrics Monthly | 07
LendingMetrics updates
A new location for LendingMetrics
Since 2010, LendingMetrics has gone from strength to strength, and this growth has resulted in a consistent increase in headcount. Moving to a larger office had been on the cards for a while and the company decided that now would be the perfect time to relocate. This would allow for more space so that staff can return to partial working in an office environment with adequate social distancing measures in place.
Since the start of the pandemic, the company has been one step ahead of most by responding to government guidance quickly, making the decision for all staff to work from home before lockdown was announced and produc- ing an extensive company policy and risk assessment. Whilst staff adjusted to remote working well, LendingMetrics, aware of the importance of face-to-face interaction, made the decision to move to a new
self-contained space to allow staff to gradually return to the office. The new building allows staff and visitors to best adhere to appropriate COVID-secure procedures, ensuring the LendingMet- rics team feel as safe as possible within the workplace. The move required concise planning and execution to ensure workspaces were spaced out appropriately, contact was reduced to a minimum and daily intensive cleaning of the area was arranged.
Above: the team adjusted well to working from home at the start of lockdown
Above: the new office in Whiteley
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Supporting study
About the move, Neil Williams said: ‘We’re really pleased with our new office and our transition from a ser - viced office to a self-contained space. This move expresses not only our growth in terms of size, but ambition, and shows how even during a difficult time we have remained a solid and stable partner for our customers.’
The new office, located in the heart of the Solent Business Park in Hamp- shire, includes scenic walks featuring two picturesque lakes, plenty of local lunch providers and modern facilities. It is an excellent way to further recog- nise how far the company has come in the past 10 years.
LendingMetrics’ Design Georgia Pullen recently completed her Master’s degree in Visual Communica- tion. The company’s support of contin- ued learning meant she could study for the course over two years whilst also working full time for the company, and as a result is walking away with a first class honours. Head of Operations Paul Brown commented: ‘This is a massive achievement so well done Georgia!’ Graphic
1650 Parkway, Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire PO15 7AH, UK
One new and one returning member of the team This month, we’re welcoming a new member to the team and saying welcome back to a familiar face
We’re pleased to welcome a new face to the LendingMetrics team. Avinash Bobba joined us recently as a Develop - er with over 6 years of experience in the industry. Avinash relocated from Watford to join the team at the new UK office in Whiteley, and has already begun working on R&D as part of the Auto Decision Platform (ADP) team. We’re also welcoming back Poonam Singh, a highly experienced Senior Developer who returned from mater - nity leave this month. Poonam rejoins the ADP team and has been catching up on the sizeable updates that the platform has received over the past year.
Developer Avinash Bobba
Senior Developer Poonam Singh
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Metrics Monthly | 09
Portal power
David Wylie, Director of LendingMetrics, says too many mortgage lenders are failing to automate their decision making, even though it is key to winning leads from internet portals
The procedure that underpins the under- writing of mortgage business in the UK has essentially remained unchanged for the past 25-or-so years. It is a seemingly age-old scenario, and one familiar to everyone in the industry: a client wants a mortgage, and the race is on to obtain a decision-in-principle, once an appropriate product has been selected. Using sourcing tools, brokers match their client to the published lender cri- teria to get a swift decision-in-principle that ensures the client does not go else- where, or their lead goes cold. In essence, this results in a rushed and far-from-ideal process. The client may have been less than totally straightfor- ward transparent about their circum-
stances at the outset, so, when the paperwork is finally in, and the manual underwriters get to work on the applica- tion, the product may not fit after all. Another product has to be found and the process starts again, and if that replacement product also does not work, the whole effort proves to be a waste of the broker’s (and lender’s) time. The nature of decisions made in this way are that, by necessity, they are pretty generic, de-personalised, and non-binding. They give only the illusion of a proper decision to the borrower. A decade ago, this was the way it was because technology would support nothing else. We were living in a world of fax machines and emails. However,
we now live in a world where there is widespread availability of real-time data on most things you care to mention, and we all know we have instant access to real time bank transaction data via Open Banking. This should have made the time-consuming process I have out- lined above obsolete. But it hasn’t. In too many lenders the familiar and outdated process is still there in the background. A legacy system that will just not go away. Admittedly, there have been some lenders who have moved forward on this - Skipton announced it was using Open Banking earlier in the year - but there have not been many. The problem with this slow level of take-up is that it is leaving the industry
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ill-prepared to deal with the increas- ing flow of traffic coming from the internet portals used by brokers and consumers. Lenders can only realistically partic- ipate on these sites if they can give instant and accurate decisions. The model does not work well if the deci- sions are slow to arrive and initially only estimates. Apart from the ques- tion of accuracy, there is the ques- tion of application turnaround times. How can a lender hope to handle the volume of enquiries that can flow from such portals if they are reliant on old technology? Compare this to automated underwrit- ing platforms such as LendingMetrics’ Auto Decision Platform (ADP) that can comfortably handle tens of thousands of applications from such portals in a short timeframe. Real time and com- prehensive assessments of all areas of a prospect’s finances can be tapped, so that a personalised and accurate decision is provided - instantly. Every
decision will be in line with credit policy (even a proprietary a scorecard), there will be no manual mistakes, and indica- tions of fraud will be better detected by the technology. Instead of having to plough through a pipeline of variable quality leads, lenders can dip into the applicant stream and, in milliseconds, only pull out those likely to meet their score- card criteria. The potential for auto- mated technology to make millions of quick decisions in a matter of minutes, means that sampling the ‘waterfall’ of applications and making initial screen- ing decisions is possible and practical- ly cost free. Lenders can make a rapid automated ‘no’ decision much earlier in the process based on in-depth trans- action data. And this approach dramatically reduces the ‘refer’ scenarios, and there is no ‘we will contact you once your application has been processed’. Instead, the applicant has an accurate and instant yes or no decision.
No one can afford to allow prospects to drop out of a process, given the amount of time and money spent to attract them in the first place. Lenders need to appreciate that if they are to truly thrive in the very competitive and changing lending environment that we now have, they are going to have to move faster and more decisively in this area.
Above: LendingMetrics Commercial Director and co-founder David Wylie
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Metrics Monthly | 11
A new partnership
LendingMetrics are delighted to announce that United Trust Bank have selected ADP for their automated mortgage decisioning
United Trust Bank is a prominent UK specialist mortgage lender providing a range of innovative first and second charge products through its panel of approved introducers. Known by business partners and cus- tomers alike for its dependable reputa- tion for making quick, consistent and common-sense decisions, the bank prides itself on the work of its expert underwriting team. As a pioneer, United Trust Bank strives to lead the way in offering its introducers and customers the most streamlined technology-led approvals processes along with a range of competitive and imaginative mort- gage products. This approach led the bank to an exten- sive tender process and the ultimate decision, to partner with LendingMet- rics to deliver the best in class automat- ed approvals platform Auto Decision Platform (ADP) . The new platform, currently undergo- ing the bank’s UAT process, augments the expertise of the bank’s underwrit-
ers, by orchestrating data from credit reference agencies and other data pro- viders, to deliver a sophisticated mort- gage assessment in milliseconds. The enhanced capabilities offered by ADP will allow the bank to instantly inform introducers about decision outcomes, individual affordability assessments and approval conditions. Commentingon thenews, BusterTolfree (Commercial Director – Mortgages at United Trust Bank) said: “At United Trust Bank we have continued to develop and invest in smart FinTech solutions which make it quicker and easier for custom- ers and brokers to deal with us whilst improving our workflow efficiency. In this latest enhancement we’ll be able to analyse and process data from mul- tiple sources giving brokers lightning fast automated mortgage decisions on qualifying cases and free up resource in our underwriting team which can be applied to applications which require a more personal touch. Our adoption of technology benefits all customers from those with the most straightfor-
ward applications to those with more complex circumstances. This is an exciting time for UTB as we become a significant force in the specialist mort - gage market and this partnership with LendingMetrics will help us to provide a scalable offering, increasing our volume capability whilst also improving broker and customer journeys and delivering more successful outcomes.” David Wylie (Commercial Director at LendingMetrics) added: “United Trust Bank shared with us a really exciting vision as to how they intend to scale their lending operations in the coming months and years. Sophisticated auto- mated decisioning is an essential part of that vision and LendingMet- rics are delighted to be delivering our award-winning solution to help achieve the bank’s ambitions. The unique ADP logic editor ensures that, not only can the bank execute sophisticated and individual decisions in real-time, they can also modify their policies, algo- rithms and risk appetite instantly too.”
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OpenBankVision
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OpenBankVision (OBV) by LendingMetrics is an award-winning and fully categorised bank statement data platform, based on decades of combined experience in the field. Our OBV platform provides categorised bank statement data, absolutely free, with no limits and no contractual minimums.
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1650 Parkway, Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire PO15 7AH, UK
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Gambling sector spotlight UK Gambling Commission hint at Affordability Consultation
The UKGC has issued strict guidelines on how gambling operators should manage their VIP schemes. The Commission identified these VIP schemes as an area that would require change, following a consultation which saw ‘high value’ customers provided with gifts or preferential services in an aim to increase their custom, without enough consideration of their spend- ing abilities. The last paragraph of the guidance was just as telling, with more than a hint of the likely announcement of a consultation around customer interaction which will heavily focus on ‘affordability’. One would expect this to be a public consultation if a customers’ views are to be taken into account and the area of affordability is likely to generate one of the largest responses to this consulta- tion. This comes hot on the heels of the
192-page ‘Gambling Harm – Time for Action’ report, produced by The House of Lords Select Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry, and the 81-page ‘Gambling Review and Reform’ report produced by the SMF (Social Market Foundation), both released this summer. Roll on to Autumn and two heavy- weights have joined the tsunami of opinion demanding gambling operators to regulate further. Downing Street has reportedly taken control of the upcom- ing review of gambling legislation, due to be launched within weeks, amid a growing appetite for sweeping reform of the industry from Boris Johnson and his closest advisers. The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is expected to kick off the long-awaited review this Autumn but well-placed sources said Boris Johnson and his closest advisers were now steering the plans. ‘The PM
just sees it as people being exploited and it’s not him’, said one MP with inti- mate knowledge of discussions within Whitehall. The Guardian was quoted as saying ‘Johnson’s closest adviser Dominic Cummings and Munira Mirza – Director of the No.10 policy unit – have both taken a personal interest in a push to overhaul the 2005 Gambling Act’. Around the same time as this Downing Street intention, came the announce- ment that a group of some 150 peers from within the House of Lords will undertake a review of gambling indus- try safeguards , duties and customer protections, seeking to inform the gov- ernment about urgent changes to gam- bling regulation. ‘Peers for Gambling Reform’ (PGR) will be Chaired by Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat). Vice Chairs of the Group will include Lord Smith of Hindhead (Conservative), Bar- oness Armstrong (Labour), Lord Butler (Crossbench) and the Bishop of St Albans.
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The group has been formed ahead of the government and UKGC’s planned reform of the 2005 Gambling Act, in which PGR outlined its key priorities. These include ‘effective affordability checks for gamblers to prevent harm’. Link this with the UK Gambling Com- mission’s continued calls for ‘the need for improved affordability checks’ and it wouldn’t take a data scientist to work out that legislative changes are coming. At the very least, we are likely to see clearer and tighter regulations on what affordability means or, to put in bluntly, what an operator is going to need to do to be compliant with affordability based licence conditions. At LendingMetrics, we have had dis- cussions with a number of operators who are keen to tap into our knowledge and experience of providing automat- ed risk decisioning to online consumer and commercial lending organisations. Lenders are ultimately building afforda- bility profiles to help decide what amounts they are able to responsibly lend to a customer and on what terms, arguably akin to deciding what amount
a client can ‘lose’ to help ensure they are ‘betting within their means’. This same technology that we have used to assist lenders over the last 10 years, is being used to build affordability profiles for gambling clients. Our expe - rience of working through the (conceiv- ably toxic) payday loans period, which saw the rise of high cost short term credit, has given us great insight as to how the work of regulators evolves. Too many solutions are currently being touted as ‘affordability solutions’, when in reality they are nothing more than a component of the overall affordability picture. At LendingMetrics we see that this is just the beginning of the changes to the gambling regulatory landscape and that gambling operators need more than a sticking plaster. They need a future- proofed solution, capable of orchestrat- ing all of the vendor solutions available today and those that will surely come to market in the coming months and years. Our Auto Decision Platform (ADP) can pull data from any feed into one place to build a more fulsome
profile. It can link the profile with oper - ators’ customer betting data to provide a robust affordability profile, as well as allow the managing of customer trigger points (i.e. excess betting) according- ly. We have integrations with all of the major CRAs as well as offering our own CRA data (LMX) . We offer a FREE Open Banking solution with OpenBankVi- sion (OBV) – providing a customer has given permissions - and our ADP plat- form helps automate, in seconds, an affordability profile. What’s more, there are audits and manual interventions to add the human touch where desirable. The political and regulatory voices have been vocal on what’s coming. All opera- tors should be on notice and looking at how they should automate and manage affordability. For an exploratory discussion on how we can help with your affordability pro- filing or if you want access to free Open Banking, please get in touch with one of our team of experienced online gaming experts on +44 (0) 2394 211010.
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Metrics Monthly | 15
Case study Not-for-profit lender Fair For You reflect on a successful year of OpenBankVision
Fair for You (FFY) is a new, award-winning, not-for-profit alternative to weekly payment stores. Consumers purchase items directly from FFY suppliers by taking out a loan with them and repaying in flexible instalments. FFY state that applicants only pay what they can afford, when they can afford it and the faster they pay it off, the less they pay. FFY are a not-for-profit Com - munity Interest Company (CIC) and members of Social Enterprise UK. They state their product is supported and designed by the consumer and that
they are using the power of business to bring about social change. Choosing LendingMetrics FFY and LendingMetrics already had a long standing partnership which com- menced when the lender implemented Auto Decision Platform (ADP) in early 2018. Since then, ADP has successfully been used for their new and returning customer application decisioning pro- cesses. The company was apprehen- sive about implementing Open Banking after hearing mixed views of it’s take-up and incorrectly perceiving that the only benefit would be to save time for the underwriting team in obtaining state-
ments. LendingMetrics demonstrat- ed the numerous additional benefits available with Open Banking, and FFY decided to implement LendingMetrics’ OpenBankVision (OBV) , which went live in the Autumn of 2019. Approach Prior to utilising OBV, FFY used a manual process, which involved their underwriting team reviewing the loan amount requested, affordability result or the declared salary, then making a decision about whether they needed to see bank statements or proof of income. With the manual review of bank statements being a time-consum-
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ing process, particularly when looking at screenshots of paper copies of state- ments, FFY needed an alternative that allowed them to view bank statement data in real-time, without the need for manual processes. FFY’s demographic specifically requires them to be able to assess affordability and validate income, so by using OBV they can see what a customer earns and spends, as well as any troublesome habits such as repeated use of HCSTC or excessive gambling. Following the previous success with ADP, FFY were keen to establish OBV as part of their decisioning process just as efficiently. They found the first 6 months of using ADP incredibly easy and considered it to be a highly valued piece of software, so were pleased that the implementation of OBV was equally seamless, with the development work completed on their website promptly by the LendingMetrics team. Following this, Fair For You have been able to build the changes into their ADP strategy quickly and efficiently. Result Since implementation, FFY have found OBV highly beneficial to their underwrit - ing process. They currently call the OBV service over 1000 times per month, with the time taken to make a lending deci- sion using bank statement significant - ly reduced, as the underwriting team instantly have the data at their disposal in order to make a decision. The plat- form provides fully categorised bank statement data, allowing FFY to make an informed decision on any marginal
the underwriting team. Using OBV alongside LendingMetrics’ ADP for automated credit decision- ing has allowed FFY to create spe- cific policy rules within their decision engines that directly look at the mul- titude of responses from OBV. This integration has inhibited a coordinated response, allowing the lender to benefit from the many capabilities of ADP, and enabled them to embed a secondary affordability assessment and sophisti- cated income validation rules. The richness of the Open Banking data provided has given FFY’s underwriting team the confidence to start automat - ically approving applications, which in turn has reduced operational workloads and sped up the onboarding process for a customer. Whilst the implementation process of integrating OBV was swift, and FFY have been successfully using the platform since 2019, they have still experienced some resistance from applicants in providing statements. So, to help improve their conversion of requests for Open Banking, they recent- ly worked with LendingMetrics to move to a FFY branded version of the solu- tion. This has been met with a great reception and early signs show that the conversion has increased by c25%. LendingMetrics’ CTO Neil Williams said: “We’re really pleased that our contin- ued partnership with Fair For You gave them the confidence to implement OBV to support their automated decision- ing, and look forward to seeing how their own branded version of the plat- form further enhances their customer experience.”
“
I thought that the only benefit of Open Banking to us would be time saved in collect- ing and reviewing bank statements. Since deploying OBV, the custom- er journey has been noticeably smoother and the richness of data
allows us to au- tomate decisions with confidence. James Wilkinson Head of Lending and Credit Risk at Fair For You
”
cases without having to review each individual transaction, thus saving time and increasing consistency. Implementing OBV has also reduced customer friction, as FFY no longer need to request bank statements for individuals, and customers aren’t required to email their statements to
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Metrics Monthly | 17
www.lendingmetrics.com +44 (0) 2394 211010
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