Collection is based on both effectiveness – following the traditional aim of credit collection to maximize repayment and collection – and efficiency, both in an operative and economic sense. Recovering more (rehabilitating the customer if possible), in the shortest time possible, and optimizing the use of available resources, all at a low cost is a good summary of the objectives towards which modern credit collection should be heading.
The synergies brought about through such an approach are considerable: for example the control and containment of the insolvent portfolio as a driver for competitive positioning, through the lowering of risk and capital costs, and therefore the eventual re-adjustment of the corresponding rate used in Risk Based Pricing logic.
This goes beyond the handling the collection portfolio in an undifferentiated way and purely on the aging of overdue accounts in favor of the use of risk measurement tools and intervention strategies which are based on careful risk/value analysis, the segmentation of the accounts, and on the diversification of actions undertaken in line with the characteristics of a single account.
The use of a new software platform with built-in best practices allows banks and financial institutions to improve the performance of collection activities, thanks to the structured definition of management policies and the tasks assigned to each party involved in the process, to the systematic execution of the most appropriate actions for each overdue account, and to the constant monitoring of results.
By combining aspects of workflow management, data integration and management, processing of decisional strategies, front-end web, and ad-hoc reports, CRIF Decision Solutions has developed CLever to provide support in the pro-active management of credit collection.
CLever enables the automation and control of all the typical phases of the collection management cycle within a unique integrated platform. The needs which led to the development of CLever regard both managerial and operational areas of credit collection:
- process management, with tight controls through all the processing, and a systematic application of the rules and strategies designed by the Collection manager
- greater flexibility and timing of actions, thanks to the automation of some crucial phases (assessment and decision) and through the integration of the different players involved in a unique technological platform
- constant development of collection strategies, thanks to information support provided by the reports and information stored within the application
- optimization of resources and communicative coherence, thanks to a customer-centered approach (with custom modules for the automatic creation of correspondence), and the capabilities to optimize allocation and prioritize of the accounts.
