Bruce Curry

Across EMEA, most countries have moved past the peak of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the various stages of lockdown being reversed vary, what is almost certain is the harsh economic reality facing consumers and companies as government support lessens and even withdraws completely. This will impact debt collection in the pandemic. In Britain alone the Inter…

In my last post, I discussed a new approach to affordability assessments using Open Banking data. In this post, I’d like to take a step back and discuss a phased approach to collections in the current crisis, as well as the role of omnichannel communications. I have recently presented on this topic with Olly Betts, CPO of OpenWrks, and Russell Robinson, VP for Custome…

Affordability and driving the right outcomes for customers has never been so front of mind for credit lenders. Over the past couple of months, every market has been challenged to deal with credit-stressed consumers, in situations where they didn’t necessarily expect to be. In the UK alone, it is estimated that more than 80 million affordability assessments are comp…

This is a unique time. Just as organisations were getting to grips with IFRS 9 and its implications, the impact of COVID-19 has created the “perfect storm” for collections as regulators, organisations and customers scramble to understand the economic and financial impact of this pandemic. Before the Storm Broke… Before COVID-19, we were looking at how IFRS 9 doe…

Across many EMEA markets, debt collection has been focussed on driving the right outcome for the customer at the outset, rather than how soon and how quickly cash can be collected.  With the COVID-19 pandemic this approach could not come any sooner for credit customers whose ability to pay is at risk. The past is something we should learn from. I think there a…

South Africans just went through the month they dub Janu-worry, where they fret about how to pay off our December bills. That's over, but the big picture is scarier than any family's holiday spending binge. What we see, as a company that works with lenders and debt collection agencies worldwide, is that the financial services sector has a lot to be Febru-worried about…

As I think about predictions for next year in debt management for Europe and the UK, there are three big concerns: Consumer indebtedness has not abated at all and has reached record highs in some markets. Most economic markets are on the verge of a downturn. Brexit Before I get to my predictions, let me explore each of these. Consumer Indebtedness…

Changes in the credit industry are playing havoc with traditional collections strategies and tactics. However efficient and advanced an operation is, it’s being stress-tested by a multitude of factors in ways not seen since the last global recession. Here are some of those factors, and the questions they raise for debt collectors: Consumer demand for credit – if…

Following last week’s posts about static delinquencies and other delinquency trends, I have had several conversations that lead me to wonder how holistically we are looking to solve some of the more challenging credit management issues. Here are my concerns. Firstly, I have just seen the damage a collections shop that is not ready for IFRS 9 can experience. This has…

Here’s my advice for 2019 in a nutshell: With IFRS 9 impacts and €780 billion of NPL in Europe alone, stop reading about AI and start thinking about optimization. OK, let me unpack that. I’ll break it down to four focus areas. Accounting Rules & Regulation Overload You don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that regulation will continue to drive change in the…

In my last post I described changes in collections and the debt purchase market as banks focus on non-performing loans (NPL) and non-performing exposures (NPE). Now let’s look at what should be happening — but isn’t. NPL and NPEs can’t be considered in a vacuum. Banks face huge challenges over the next two years, and nearly all bankers view attracting new customers a…

Are we making the progress we want to see — and regulators demand — on non-performing loans (NPL)? That’s the topic I explored with banking leaders from across the Europe, Middle East and Africa at our EMEA Risk Leadership Summit in May. Taking a step back from all the activity going on in this space, it’s clear that major shifts are occurring, but there are some sur…