Rethinking Credit Lending
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WHITE PAPER BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AND THE FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKET RETHINKINGState-of-the-Art CREDIT Analysis LENDING Abstract Lending industry’s dynamics are changing rapidly. A whole new breed of lenders are fundamentally transforming the industry and redefining its modus operandi. Most Financial Institutions (FIs) are still doing things the traditional way and grappling with the challenges of legacy systems, outmoded processes, and inertia to change. To remain relevant, the lending groups within FIs need to respond quickly to meet emerging challenges. This paper examines the key drivers for the financial institutions to reinvent themselves, key market trends in the current lending environment, how financial institutions are standing up to the challenges, some of the innovations in the financial industry and their disruption potential, and lastly this paper recommends what FIs can do to not just subsist but also flourish in this environment. The contents herein are equally applicable to both retail lending as well as small ticket business lending. Contents Introduction 03 Business imperatives for change 04 How is the industry responding? 05 Customer centricity 05 Advanced analytics 05 Operational efficiency 07 ‘Out-of-the-box’ ideas 09 What can Financial Institutions do? 10 Response Approaches 11 A word of caution 12 Final thoughts 13 How can Infosys help? 14 References 16 External Document © 2018 Infosys Limited Introduction Introduction For borrowers, lending has traditionally collection, non-digitized data, manual catalyzing lending space by simplifying meant filling up long application forms, and subjective underwriting processes, borrowing experience, and faster time to submission of volumes of documents, data spread across files and systems, decision leveraging alternate sources of some of which are not even readily and consequently less than optimum data (from E-Commerce, UPS to payables available which meant spending long decisions. and card network data) to sell better hours preparing them, several back and and manage credit risks better. With P2P In this age of consumer, the pressure is on forth with lenders, followed by months lending through platforms expected to long due diligence with some obscure financial institutions to keep consumers grow to around $350 billion, and business methods with no status updates, and constantly happy with speed and lending through online platforms finally decision with no justifications convenience, while dealing the internal expected to reach around $206 billion and sometimes too late to be of any use. operational challenges and regulatory by year 2025, only in the USA1, there is For lenders, this was characterized by compliance. While large financial merit in examining the environment and huge data needs for underwriting, weeks institutions are grappling with inertia defining a charter for reformation. long data collection, experiential data to change, nimble technology firms are External Document © 2018 Infosys Limited Business imperatives for change The key imperatives that are driving FIs to reform are: Make it Help me Convenient Trust you and easy for me Know me Rising consumer Disruptions from Increasing regulatory Operational expectations alternative lenders scrutiny challenges Figure. 1 1. Rising consumer expectations Securities and Exchange Commission’s 3. Increasing regulatory requirements With so many providers to choose (SEC’s) approval in 2008. With end-to-end Regulations are becoming more stringent from, consumers have become more technology-based operations, alternative with: demanding. They no longer need the lenders are offering all the convenience • New data and reporting standard ‘product’ offered by providers. and speed consumers need and have requirements Rather, they need ‘solutions’ for their become the first choice for small ticket • Pressure to invest in IT infrastructure problems, which translate into needs. loans. They can be classified as: For their credit needs, consumers are • Early detection of Capital at Risk asking for: • Online marketplace lenders (P2P and (CaR) balance sheet lenders): P2P lenders • Easy and convenient lending 4. Operational challenges do not lend but connect lenders and experiences with speedy fund While the factors described above are delivery borrowers using a fee-based model. external to an organization and beyond Lending Club, Funding Circle, and • Personalized services with implicit their control, operational challenges are assumptions that providers Prosper fall into this class of lenders. internal and can be prevented. Firms remember them from past Balance sheet lenders are lenders in typically employ long, manual, and interactions the true sense of the term because subjective underwriting processes. They • Utmost transparency in the process they hold debt within their own use multiple systems for processing and and assurance of safety balance sheets. Kabbage, OnDeck, data is spread across systems with no and Can Capital are few examples of single source of truth. Such firms face 2. Disruptions from alternative lenders such lenders. challenges related to: Alternative lenders mushroomed in 2005 • Legacy systems • Small Business Administration (SBA) with the launch of Zopa and gained backed online lenders e.g. SmartBiz • Process inefficiencies attention in 2007 with Lending Club • Data quality and integration receiving major funding and subsequent External Document © 2018 Infosys Limited How is the industry understanding of the potential uses of identify solutions, and providing responding? technology. The actual steps taken by advice while engaging customers. In FIs can be classified under three broad the current environment, where the The response of FIs to the changing categories: offerings of various providers have little lending landscape has primarily been differentiation, “the only sustainable 1. Customer centricity two-fold. First is keeping customers competitive advantage left is an 2. Advanced analytics at the center of the organization and obsession with customers and the key to designing everything else around them. 3. Operational efficiency growth is customer loyalty”2. Therefore, The second is a substantial increase in the first step is providing customers with usage and deployment of technology- 1. Customer centricity a superior experience as well as to ensure based solutions on all fronts. This has Customer centricity entails building a that customers trust the brand. This leads been fueled by both the advancement customer’s trust in the brand, moving to customer loyalty and advocacy, which of technology in automation and data away from the concept of a ‘product’ in turn become the source of competitive warehousing, and by an increased to a ‘solution mindset,’ helping clients advantage. Customer Experience Customer Customer Competitive Loyalty Advocacy Advantage Customer Trust Figure. 2 Towards customer centricity, firms are • Enabling reviews and ratings by are being used to identify non-linear making significant efforts on two fronts: creating consumer communities and relationships between variables. Analytics building customer trust and augmenting forums on websites. This also helps is being leveraged to offer advisory customer engagement. in building the brand as consumers capabilities based on customer data transform into brand ambassadors analytics to better understand customer Customer trust by solving the problems of other needs and create ‘sticky’ relationships. Firms are investing in building customer consumers using their own Specifically, advanced analytics is being trust by: experiences used for: • Proposing what is best for the Customer engagement customer by evaluating customer Firms are providing free customer Enhancing Customer profiles and needs, and providing engagement tools on their websites for Engagement best product / pricing options customers to ‘play with’ without actually Infosys Case Study • Providing visibility into the selling. Customers are welcome to use the A large UK-based financial institution underwriting process by explaining it tools on the website unconditionally and enhanced customer engagement by in detail and being upfront about the help them solve their business problems. offering the following two interactive eligibility criteria For providers, these tools are helpful tools on its website. • Providing transparency in pricing in two ways: firstly, they provide rich by, for example, creating sliders on insights about potential customers and 1. Working Capital Profiler: a website where pricing is provided secondly, these tools are designed to lead Allows the customer to have upfront for every combination of customers into an optional sales funnel a graphical representation of loan amount and duration and thus create sales opportunities. their working capital and cash • Holding value-based dialogues requirements. Once profiled, this with customers without attempting 2. Advanced analytics information provides the key to create tailored offerings to sell on every occasion. An Assimilation of large volumes of data, example here would be publishing 2. Working Capital Finance Finder: the ingestion and combination of newer informational videos, blogs, and types of data with traditional data, and Allows customers to generate a articles from experts on websites to usage of advanced analytical techniques range of funding options that meet help customers manage spending or for deeper insights, are becoming core their requirements. They can then articles on how to manage