John McMahon

The economic impact of COVID-19 has been surreal – months of lockdown and partial lockdown has created a black hole in everyone’s finances, be they a government, a business or consumer. I recently discussed the four key changes in collections we have seen at FICO in an interview with Global Risk Community. Here are those changes. 1. Digital Collections Previo…

The recent announcement from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority concerning its expectations about what to do next with customers who have been affected by COVID-19 — whether they have taken a payment holiday or not — underlines the importance of customer communications. This is true whether the customer is in collections or up to date, but assumes even greater impor…

In The World Is Changing — So Can We, singer David Byrne asks, “Is there something we can learn from this, something that will prepare us to better weather the next crisis, some different way of being that might make us stronger?” Byrne’s isn’t the only voice calling for thoughtful, positive change. There are many others—one of the most heartening things about thes…

On a recent visit to a conference in Melbourne, an old friend was discussing her new approach to helping vulnerable customers who can’t afford to pay their electricity bills. As electricity is deemed an essential service in Australia, the supply cannot be disconnected for non-payment; this is a heavily regulated industry with a very strong customer focus. This in…