May 2022
May 2022
On May 18 and 19, during the 9th edition of the Lending Industry Conference (KSP) organized by the Association of Financial Companies in Poland, CRIF experts had the opportunity to present our solutions and share their thoughts on the industry.
This conference is the largest event outside the banking lending sector, organized annually for almost 10 years, which promotes an exchange of information and open discussions. It covers topics related to development outlooks, as well as business practices, new legal regulations - both Polish and European – and also innovations and improvements in business processes in this sector.
It is a meeting point for experts who can exchange insights – especially managers from lending institutions, financial intermediaries, as well as legal and strategic consultants and suppliers of products and services related to consumer lending products.
The first day of the conference was opened by Marcin Czugan - CEO of ZPF, who presented the current state of the lending industry in the European Union. This was followed by a discussion - "The CEOs’ discussion on the need for and importance of the lending market in Poland". Despite its duration, the range of topics wasn’t exhausted - on the contrary, the discussion could have gone on and on. The participants drew attention to many interesting issues: the introduction of the new regulations, in a way forcing market changes, as well as the implementation of new solutions that contribute to the development of the sector.
Currently, the lending market is undergoing a huge transformation. This is not only due to regulatory changes such as the anti-usury act, but also the development of the latest technologies and the digital transformation that has taken place in recent years. Consumers are being offered increasingly better forms of payment, including buy now pay later, which only drive growth in this sector. The lending market has long since moved beyond its own confines and now offers more and more products similar to banking, therefore making competitive offers to their customers while offering them real value.
The second day of the conference opened with a discussion on the effects of the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the financial sector. After the discussion, our expert - Jolanta Pytel, Senior Business Development Manager at CRIF Sp. z o.o., gave a presentation on the impact of the proposed changes to the limits of non-interest costs on the lending market. The following conclusions could be drawn from the analysis of the market situation:
After the presentation by our expert, there was a discussion titled the "Consumer Credit Directive and other significant changes to the regulation of the lending market and the direction of the development of the lending market – where is it going?" about the so-called anti-usury act and the draft of the Consumer Credit Directive II, as well as other significant legislation that defines the framework for the functioning of the lending sector in Poland.
These laws change a lot for the consumer, whereas from the perspective of lending institutions, the standards do not change - the creditworthiness assessment remains reliable and is based on available databases that allow quick and effective verification. Also, the introduction of requirements in the area of defining the standards and the obligation to use only the resources of trusted data providers does not change anything in the sector - such practices and standards have been in force for a long time.
As it has been rightly noted, this legislation may act as a kind of gateway for institutions, for which the priority will be only formal fulfillment of its requirements in the specified area and basing the creditworthiness assessment on the minimum - but technically sufficient - range of data. These were the conclusions drawn from the discussion in which our expert - Marcin Rusinek, Legal Advisor at CRIF Sp. z o.o., took part.
In the afternoon, the conference participants had the opportunity to listen to two further discussions: "Optimal sales channels for individual financial products", which raised issues related to the change in customer behavior associated with digitalization, which is reflected in the role of the omnichannel strategy and the change in the evaluation of sales processes in the post-pandemic situation. The participants in the second discussion also dealt with interesting issues - “Evolution of the credit market towards deferred payments, cards, crowdfunding, and consumer leasing. Or maybe ... a pawnshop? ”, during which modern forms of financing collided with consumer needs, and the experts wondered whether new products had already replaced traditional ones such as consumer credit.
Despite the fact that the question of where the lending sector is headed was not answered, discussions and lectures allowed the exchange of interesting points of views that led to reflections on the future of the sector.
