FICO expert explores applicable learnings from 2008 financial crash

London, 18^th May 2020 - Bruce Curry, vice president for collections and recovery consulting and sales in EMEA at global analytics software provider FICO, urges the collections community to ensure it gets its data strategies right to handle the challenges resulting from COVID-19.

“Clearly the current situation is like nothing experienced before – but there are certainly lessons that can be learnt from the financial crisis of 2008 that will stand the collections and recoveries business operation in good stead for the future. And we believe data is at the heart of finding the right solutions for the future,” Curry said.

“The current COVID-19 environment and the debt and financial stress it is creating will deliver a lot of data. Organisations need to capture the right data, understand it and where it will be needed further down the line. The financial community should also take heed from the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis. There were a number of things not done then that must be addressed now to ensure that lenders and their customers can emerge with mutual loyalty still intact.”

FICO believes that the lending sector must take immediate action to ensure it can identify the customers who would not have been in collections were it not for COVID-19 and understand how these particular customers would perform compared to those individuals frequently in debt. Collecting and analysing this data will help determine the likely return to financial good profile by customer cohort data, including:

• • Were they in a protected industry?
  • What circumstances drove their reduction of income? E.g. was it:
    • Furlough and if so with what degree of protection?
    • Redundancy?
    • Sickness?
  • What has been the true level of impact on disposable income – can open banking support and validate the impact?
  • What is their likely return to good curve given their household dynamics and industry sector?

By taking this forensic approach to understanding the new cohort of debtors, lenders will be able to create more effective segmentations to create the right collections strategies and treatment paths for the long-term. As Bruce Curry continues, this approach delivered positive results after the 2008 financial crisis.

“Two years before the 2008 crash, the average return to financial good was two and a half years. Two years post the crisis that period of return to financial good had reduced to nine months. This is because the customers who rolled into collections as a result of the 2008 financial crisis were actually good customers, with a short-term payment problem. They had a very different financial morality profile and were soon back in employment and earning again hence returned to a good status. This depth of understanding – and going further – must underpin collections strategies for 2020 and beyond.

“Treating the customers who are now facing financial stress as a direct consequence of COVID-19 with the right outcomes will generate a lifetime of loyalty. However, there is one very important difference this time round. Unfortunately, the scale of vulnerability in both the short and long term appears greater.

“How we come out of the current crisis is not about having 2020 vision. It’s about having the right analytics in place to understand the data and create the right strategies.”

FICO is running a series of resilience webinars for the financial community. To register, visit https://www.fico.com/en/virtual-events

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About Bruce Curry

Bruce Curry is a vice president for collections and recovery consulting and sales at FICO, helping clients across Europe, the Middle East and Africa improve performance in collections and recovery. Bruce has worked directly with dozens of businesses in 50+ countries across EMEA and APAC. Before joining FICO, Bruce held successive senior operational management positions over 16 years with Barclays vehicle asset finance (Dial Contracts), Marks and Spencer Financial Services and Royal Bank of Scotland Cards. Prior to his commercial career Bruce undertook a successful career in the Armed Forces where he worked across the world in many varied roles. In April, Bruce was named to the Credit 500 Hall of Fame by Credit Strategy magazine. Read more of Bruce’s advice for debt collectors at www.fico.com/en/blogs/author/bruce-curry

About FICO

FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 195 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.

Learn more at https://www.fico.com

FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

Contacts:
FICO UK PR Team

Wendy Harrison/Parm Heer/Matthew Enderby

ficoteam@harrisonsadler.com

0208 977 9132