CRIF Finance Meeting 2018: all the "energy" of credit

The CRIF Finance Meeting 2018, entitled “INSIDE CREDIT ENERGY. Players in credit transformation”, proved itself to be a unique opportunity to bring together all the players in the credit industry and look at how the industry is evolving in Italy, focusing specifically on innovation, market trends and business models emerging as a result of the latest regulatory drivers and disruptive technologies.

The proceedings were opened by Silvia Ghielmetti, Managing Director, who reminded the audience that 2018 was the thirtieth anniversary of CRIF and outlined its evolution from a “knowledge excellence operator” within its areas of activities and skills to a “value chain enabler”, thanks to the value produced by the synergistic combination of these skills. As an example of this value creation, Ms. Ghielmetti cited two specific case studies: the first related to data-driven debt collection, where a combination of “new data”, process knowledge and advanced analytics enabled significant increases in the amounts recovered. The second related to “green mortgages”, where the credit institution can take on a proactive role of director of the client’s overall action, thanks to CRIF’s support as enabler of an “energy efficiency” ecosystem and with its expertise in the areas of real estate as well as credit.

Ms Ghielmetti also recalled CRIF’s recent important partnerships in innovation: with INVENTIA for smart multi-channel onboarding processes, and with the Fintech Workinvoice - creating the CRIBISCASH service - to support SMEs in cash-flow and invoice management.

Continuing on from Ms. Ghielmetti’s speech, Eugenio Bonomi, CEO, presented CRIF’s vision as a “Trusted Fintech” and strategic partner. CRIF aims to take on an all-round role as “Digital Aggregator” within the ecosystem, acting as a reference point for consumer and business service distributors and producers, creating added value for all the players involved.

The regulatory context and the challenges of the European and Italian banking world, current trends in the real estate market and in mortgage lending, and innovation themes inspired the morning of intense and high-level work, with contributions from the academic world and industry. Simone Capecchi, CRIF Executive Director, gave a preview of the original analyses from the CRIF Market Outlook on consumer and business credit and looked in detail at the energy factors that alter the everyday life of credit - a rewarding and simple customer journey, digital attitude, pay per use and regulation. Gianfranco Torriero, Vice General Director of the Italian Banking Association, described the reference framework for the evolution of credit. Umberto Filotto, Full Professor of Banking at Tor Vergata University (Rome) and Affiliate Professor at SDA Bocconi School of Management, presented findings from the new mortgage research, and Francesco Burelli, Editorial Advisory Board at GLOBAL DATA, gave a speech on Open Banking and its new models for value creation.

During the morning of the CRIF Finance Meeting, a round table was held on the new drivers that have contributed to the transformation of the credit market. Led by Andrea Resti, Associate Professor at Bocconi University and CRIF Senior Advisor, there was a discussion with contributions from Valentina Gasparo, Head of Retail and SME Credit Risk at ING BANK, Enrico Lodi, CRIF Information Solutions Managing Director, Gerardo Rescigno, Head of Risk Management Department at ICCREA BANCA, and Salvatore Ruoppolo, General Manager of INTESA SANPAOLO RE.O.CO and INTESA SANPAOLO PROVIS.

A stand-out feature of the CRIF Finance Meeting has always been to offer participants the opportunity to enter into discussions with the main players in the finance market and to gather ideas during the vertical sessions from the success stories and best practices presented by the speakers. Suffice to say that in previous editions of the Finance Meeting more than 100 case studies were presented directly from market players.

During the vertical session of the CRIF Finance Meeting 2018, which was based on topics relating to Omnicustomer Lending, the main theme was the best practices in customer onboarding processes for lending, which need to be fast, multichannel and, at the same time, sophisticated (complete BPO assessment, instant lending, and analysis of big data coming from comprehensive and secure sources). CREDEM, LENDIX, GRENKE LOCAZIONE and UBI BANCA gave presentations on the subject.

The session on Financial & Banking Data Governance, dealt on topics related to data quality in credit institutions for risk management and for a forward-looking business development approach in terms of customer relations. CRÉDIT AGRICOLE CARIPARMA, BANCO BPM GROUP, MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA GROUP and ICCREA BANCA were involved in the discussion. The NPE management parallel session presented the theme in all its phases: from credit monitoring to Non-Performing Loan management. The speeches and case studies concentrated in particular on early warning systems, data remediation activities for portfolio optimization, debt collection solutions and NPL management. Representatives from B2KAPITAL, BPER GROUP, and MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA gave presentations.

A new feature of this year’s Finance Meeting was the “EURISC User Committee”, an information sharing meeting reserved for credit institutions that subscribe to EURISC, the CRIF credit reporting system, on legislative-regulatory developments concerning credit information systems. Enrique Velàzquez from ACCIS - Association of Consumer Credit Information Suppliers, and CRIF’s Francesco Avola and Enrico Lodi analyzed the operational impacts of the new European Regulation 2016/679 on personal data protection.