1 00:00:00,780 --> 00:00:05,100 Tal Schwartz: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to 2 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:10,080 Canadian lenders Association events on how to build a 3 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:15,840 resilience collection strategy. Before we get started, we want 4 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:21,540 to thank our sponsor LEC stop for supporting events and 5 00:00:21,540 --> 00:00:27,150 supporting FinTech lenders in Canada, and fintech lending 6 00:00:27,150 --> 00:00:30,570 innovation in Canada. A few quick notes before we get 7 00:00:30,570 --> 00:00:33,780 started, if you don't already know, the Canadian lenders 8 00:00:33,780 --> 00:00:39,810 association is the largest trade group for commercial and 9 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,970 consumer lending in the country, we have almost 100 members from 10 00:00:44,970 --> 00:00:50,880 coast to coast. We run events like this fairly often about 11 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:55,800 once a month. So if you're interested in joining us for 12 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,810 another webinar, or sponsoring or participating, please go to 13 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:05,580 lenders events.com. And at the end of the session, we'll be 14 00:01:05,580 --> 00:01:09,360 sending out a recording. So if you missed parts, don't worry. 15 00:01:09,960 --> 00:01:13,410 And with that, I'm going to hand things over to your moderator, 16 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:17,730 James. To get you started. 17 00:01:18,110 --> 00:01:21,740 James Rose: Very good, thanks Tal. And thanks also to the 18 00:01:21,740 --> 00:01:24,710 Canadian Lenders Association for every challenge and opportunity 19 00:01:24,710 --> 00:01:28,400 to moderate them. Looking forward to today's discussion. 20 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:32,390 We have a excellent panel of everybody from Montreal, 21 00:01:32,390 --> 00:01:36,440 Toronto, Mississauga out to Vancouver, and here in gloomy 22 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:40,250 Saskatchewan right now. So welcome. I just want to first 23 00:01:40,250 --> 00:01:42,590 take a few moments, just introduce our panelists, and 24 00:01:42,590 --> 00:01:49,220 we'll get right into it. There is an opportunity for feedback 25 00:01:49,220 --> 00:01:55,730 ready. Everybody can just put their goggles with the speakers 26 00:01:55,730 --> 00:01:58,070 to just on mute, and then we'll that way we don't get the 27 00:01:58,070 --> 00:02:02,870 feedback and our ears will all be fine. So yeah, I just wanted 28 00:02:02,870 --> 00:02:07,160 to introduce some of our panelists, and just wanted to 29 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:11,090 give them thanks. And we'll start with a mirror test Karimi 30 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:16,850 from Lexol responses for today. Amir is the CEO and co founder 31 00:02:16,850 --> 00:02:20,330 of Lexol, which is a fast growing fintech startup that's 32 00:02:20,450 --> 00:02:23,690 leading a change within collections industry and 33 00:02:23,750 --> 00:02:29,240 impacting 1000s daily. Prior to that Emir practice banking and 34 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:33,530 IT law for many firms such as IMK, BCF, and hidden Blakely, 35 00:02:33,740 --> 00:02:37,460 and then with the National Bank of Canada. And he's published 36 00:02:37,460 --> 00:02:40,700 author and has contributed to the doing business report 37 00:02:40,940 --> 00:02:45,740 presented by the World Bank Group, and Amir joins us, I 38 00:02:45,740 --> 00:02:51,680 assume from Montreal. Then next we'll next panelist we have 39 00:02:51,830 --> 00:02:56,480 Brian Simone, I think I got that right, just in terms of 40 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:01,430 translation. And Brian is the President candidacy Financial 41 00:03:01,430 --> 00:03:05,030 Group, which is a leading full service partner and provider of 42 00:03:05,030 --> 00:03:09,290 purchasing and serving solutions for institutions. Managing 43 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:13,940 receivables in Canada, Canada seed works directly with 44 00:03:13,940 --> 00:03:17,150 institutions to provide efficient access to capital and 45 00:03:17,150 --> 00:03:19,790 proving operational expense structure and utilizing 46 00:03:19,790 --> 00:03:23,750 technology enabled operations, providing businesses with 47 00:03:23,750 --> 00:03:27,530 flexibility across the credit spectrum to acquire all segments 48 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:32,930 in the consumer receivables market. And then, next, bright 49 00:03:32,930 --> 00:03:38,660 and early out in Vancouver is Nathan Slee, and he is the CEO 50 00:03:38,660 --> 00:03:42,530 of progressive which is one of Canada's fastest growing 51 00:03:42,620 --> 00:03:46,550 financial technology lenders focus on changing the way 52 00:03:46,550 --> 00:03:49,880 paycheck to paycheck, Canadians access and build credit. 53 00:03:50,390 --> 00:03:54,320 Progressive prides itself in being a socially responsible 54 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:58,280 consumer finance company, whilst empowering collection agencies 55 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,760 and enterprises to offer proactive solutions and drive 56 00:04:02,060 --> 00:04:05,300 healthy recoveries while protecting brand reputation with 57 00:04:05,300 --> 00:04:10,190 industry leading, and SPS and servicing. And progressive was 58 00:04:10,190 --> 00:04:15,890 also one of the sponsors of 2019 Canadian lenders Summit. And 59 00:04:15,890 --> 00:04:20,660 then last but not least, we have Clint no Santa, and we want to 60 00:04:20,660 --> 00:04:23,720 give a big shout out to Clinton. Just actually found out this 61 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,090 morning. One of our other panelists, unfortunately, 62 00:04:26,090 --> 00:04:29,840 couldn't make it. Robert and Zini and I did have a write up 63 00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:33,800 for him, so won't have as much to say. But I do want to thank 64 00:04:33,950 --> 00:04:38,360 you for joining us. He is VP operations over at LM credit, 65 00:04:38,690 --> 00:04:43,490 which is the sister company of LM financial and it's a loan 66 00:04:43,490 --> 00:04:46,790 company specializing in that elevating credit and he's 67 00:04:46,820 --> 00:04:51,050 joining us from Mississauga. So just prior to the introductions, 68 00:04:51,050 --> 00:04:54,530 I did want to mention, we are encouraging and open dialogue 69 00:04:54,590 --> 00:04:57,320 and questions. Um, you'll see just in the bottom of your 70 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:02,960 screen, there's two little bubbles just q&a, we were going 71 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:06,740 to offer an opportunity for questions at the end. But just 72 00:05:06,740 --> 00:05:09,500 in terms of the format, I think could actually be a lot better 73 00:05:09,500 --> 00:05:12,950 if there's any particular item that some of our panelists are 74 00:05:12,950 --> 00:05:15,560 talking to, or any burning questions, we'll just answer 75 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:19,520 them live, enter them in, I'll read them out, and then just 76 00:05:19,550 --> 00:05:28,580 leave it to the panel to discuss. So, yeah, the topic of 77 00:05:28,580 --> 00:05:32,900 today's conversation is how to build a resilient collection 78 00:05:32,900 --> 00:05:37,760 strategy. And that's in the backdrop of COVID, the winner of 79 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:44,750 the deepest recessions since the 1920s. And so many fintechs have 80 00:05:44,750 --> 00:05:47,900 raised massive amounts of capital, within that last 81 00:05:47,900 --> 00:05:51,920 quarter to potentially fill this need, there's been obviously a 82 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:55,370 lot of nervousness, there's been a lot of surprises, and I just 83 00:05:55,370 --> 00:05:59,150 wrote this, you know, we want to talk about just some of the 84 00:05:59,150 --> 00:06:03,440 experiences that we've had, learning by doing, and learning 85 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:07,160 in the current environment and, you know, crops up predictions 86 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:11,420 off, you know, for the future in order to ensure that we can 87 00:06:11,420 --> 00:06:15,980 actually have, you know, a resilient collection strategy. 88 00:06:16,580 --> 00:06:25,130 So just kind of want to then open up to the panel, just 89 00:06:25,130 --> 00:06:29,060 talking about some preps, insights, and how we can 90 00:06:29,060 --> 00:06:32,240 actually see that you know, what we need to do to send the 91 00:06:32,270 --> 00:06:39,860 current environment, and how to, well just build a resilient 92 00:06:39,890 --> 00:06:42,200 collection strategy. 93 00:06:43,770 --> 00:06:49,650 For example, just dealing with multi channel that capability, 94 00:06:50,220 --> 00:06:52,440 you know, what is sort of changed in the current 95 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:56,430 environment, or that we need to kind of focus in, you know, just 96 00:06:56,430 --> 00:06:59,370 in terms of building and maintaining an efficient 97 00:06:59,370 --> 00:07:05,190 collectors collection strategy on that front. And maybe I'll 98 00:07:05,190 --> 00:07:08,700 just open up to Brian, maybe to start off with that. 99 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,030 Bryan Szemenyei: Thanks, James, first of all, thank you for 100 00:07:12,030 --> 00:07:14,730 moderating. And thanks for everybody for for joining today, 101 00:07:15,270 --> 00:07:17,670 I'll start with a little bit of level setting, which is, you 102 00:07:17,670 --> 00:07:20,730 know, emphasizing something that everybody already knows. But it 103 00:07:20,730 --> 00:07:22,800 which is that we're sort of in an environment that is 104 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:25,680 completely unprecedented, not just in Canada, but sort of 105 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:29,610 around the globe as far as what the economic conditions are. And 106 00:07:29,610 --> 00:07:33,060 if you took us back to the middle of March, you know, in a 107 00:07:33,060 --> 00:07:36,150 time period, where it just looked like the world was, was 108 00:07:36,150 --> 00:07:40,590 on fire, sort of and getting worse during that period, there 109 00:07:40,590 --> 00:07:43,200 was a lot of fear that was going on as to what it was the the 110 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:45,720 coming year was going to look like and I'm sure everybody went 111 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,660 through their own heart palpitations at that point in 112 00:07:48,660 --> 00:07:51,870 time. But within our business, we were kind of looking into the 113 00:07:51,870 --> 00:07:54,840 future and saying, We had to completely throw at the book as 114 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:58,020 to what it was that we think we thought we could forecast at 115 00:07:58,020 --> 00:08:01,680 that stage. We just didn't know what was gonna happen. And as a 116 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:04,890 result, we were taking some pretty, pretty draconian views 117 00:08:05,130 --> 00:08:07,920 as to what the recovery landscape was going to look like 118 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:10,800 in Canada were everything, as far as you know, runs on the 119 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:14,070 bank were being contemplated at that point in time. So, you 120 00:08:14,070 --> 00:08:17,520 know, fast forward over the next six months, and it represented 121 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:21,600 sort of a sort of completely counterintuitive result from 122 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:23,910 what you would have expected, you know, you have massive 123 00:08:23,910 --> 00:08:28,500 unemployment spikes you have, you know, GDP drops like crazy, 124 00:08:28,500 --> 00:08:32,160 but at the same time delinquency rates have been down loss rates 125 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:33,810 have been down, I'm sure everybody's seeing it in their 126 00:08:33,810 --> 00:08:37,950 own portfolios. And in the recovery, world, recovery rates 127 00:08:37,950 --> 00:08:42,270 have been up dramatically. So it turns out that injecting in, you 128 00:08:42,270 --> 00:08:45,870 know, a third of a trillion dollars into the economy does 129 00:08:45,870 --> 00:08:49,140 something and it did, you know, quite a bit during that period 130 00:08:49,140 --> 00:08:52,590 of time. So it's been a lot of sort of learning as you're doing 131 00:08:52,590 --> 00:08:55,830 even within that recovery space. But if I was to sort of step 132 00:08:55,830 --> 00:08:59,610 back and say, Well, what where do we stand today, the general 133 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:03,090 consensus is that there is a coming wave that everybody's 134 00:09:03,090 --> 00:09:06,570 gonna experience be it losses, delinquencies, but also impacts 135 00:09:06,570 --> 00:09:10,320 on recovery rates within the the Receivables Management space. 136 00:09:10,530 --> 00:09:13,740 And when that comes is a little bit speculative. I mean, there's 137 00:09:13,740 --> 00:09:17,730 different different views. I think other members of panel I 138 00:09:17,790 --> 00:09:20,250 interest be interested in their thoughts as well. But the 139 00:09:20,250 --> 00:09:23,280 general view is that at the end of this year, kind of beginning 140 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:27,210 of next year, there will be that wave of of delinquencies and 141 00:09:27,210 --> 00:09:30,270 defaults that are sort of coming into the space. So I would sort 142 00:09:30,270 --> 00:09:33,000 of say to your question, James, what do you need to do to try 143 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:36,000 and prepare for that? Well, there's a kind of a set of 144 00:09:36,030 --> 00:09:39,600 things that I think all lenders whether they're small or large, 145 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:43,710 or specialty, or monoline lenders or sort of multiproduct 146 00:09:43,710 --> 00:09:46,980 lenders should be doing in order to try and prepare for that wave 147 00:09:46,980 --> 00:09:50,430 of activities. And we'll try and touch on some of those today. 148 00:09:50,610 --> 00:09:53,130 The first one is you kind of mentioned there's just on his 149 00:09:53,130 --> 00:09:55,830 channel management. I think Amir can probably talk about this one 150 00:09:55,830 --> 00:09:59,160 pretty expertly as well and that you need to kind of evaluate 151 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:01,620 what it is how you're relationship with your customer 152 00:10:01,620 --> 00:10:05,970 has changed and what's changed in their life because for the 153 00:10:05,970 --> 00:10:08,100 longest time, you've been dealing with people and very low 154 00:10:08,100 --> 00:10:12,810 touch, low friction. Somewhat passive means you don't want to 155 00:10:12,810 --> 00:10:16,740 be constantly speaking with somebody every day or every week 156 00:10:16,740 --> 00:10:19,650 or every, every month even, you just want to make sure that 157 00:10:19,650 --> 00:10:21,960 you've got, you know, a frictionless payment structure 158 00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:24,930 in place, that relationship is different. Now, this person is 159 00:10:24,930 --> 00:10:28,230 no longer somebody who you are trying to build a relationship 160 00:10:28,230 --> 00:10:31,020 with that will, you know, that you will be able to extend 161 00:10:31,020 --> 00:10:33,390 additional credit for, you're now trying to build a 162 00:10:33,390 --> 00:10:36,900 relationship with this person where you get top of pile as far 163 00:10:36,900 --> 00:10:40,050 as new payments are concerned. So as they've got sort of a 164 00:10:40,050 --> 00:10:43,980 fixed amount of cash capital that they can utilize to satisfy 165 00:10:43,980 --> 00:10:48,180 their obligations, your goal should be to be the first person 166 00:10:48,180 --> 00:10:50,700 on the list. And that means having kind of multiple 167 00:10:50,700 --> 00:10:53,580 strategies and multiple channels that you can deal with that 168 00:10:53,580 --> 00:10:57,180 person on in order to try and communicate what it is that that 169 00:10:57,180 --> 00:11:00,000 their options are for for repayment. And it's a it's a 170 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,520 firm message, but it is definitely a fair message as 171 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:04,980 well. So I'd be interested in some other it's sort of a long 172 00:11:04,980 --> 00:11:08,220 winded answer, but interested in some other perspectives as well. 173 00:11:10,140 --> 00:11:13,410 Amir Tajkariml: Yeah, well, is that okay with making James, 174 00:11:13,410 --> 00:11:18,240 I'll go add a few points there. I agree. I mean, federal aid was 175 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:21,900 great collection went higher. But one thing is for sure, 176 00:11:21,900 --> 00:11:25,410 there's going to be a massive backlog of receivables that are 177 00:11:25,410 --> 00:11:28,500 going to be out there very soon, post towards by the end of 178 00:11:28,620 --> 00:11:32,940 winter, and to be able to collect on those traditional 179 00:11:32,940 --> 00:11:36,510 channels won't work anymore. I mean, we recently conducted a 180 00:11:36,510 --> 00:11:41,400 survey right at the beginning of COVID, Alexa work with over 3000 181 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,130 Canadians just to understand what they're expecting, what 182 00:11:44,130 --> 00:11:47,520 they're getting, what they want, what they want, versus what 183 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:51,630 they're getting. And the results were fascinating because people 184 00:11:51,630 --> 00:11:54,060 don't like to answer phone calls anymore. We don't answer phone 185 00:11:54,060 --> 00:11:57,420 calls anymore. We don't pay attention to letter mail that 186 00:11:57,420 --> 00:12:01,020 sent that home, we just keep it and forget it. So now it's just 187 00:12:01,170 --> 00:12:04,050 one of the most important factors of collection is getting 188 00:12:04,050 --> 00:12:06,900 the person's attention, right? It's the rule number one, get 189 00:12:06,900 --> 00:12:09,000 the person's attention. If that doesn't work, you'll never 190 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,760 collect. And that's going through digital channels, 191 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:14,790 whether it's email, whether it's SMS, the channel that converts 192 00:12:14,790 --> 00:12:17,730 the better. And then the second thing about channel is it's 193 00:12:17,730 --> 00:12:20,190 about templating, what's the message you're sending, if 194 00:12:20,190 --> 00:12:22,890 you're sending the same message to everyone from 30 days to 90 195 00:12:22,890 --> 00:12:26,070 days, we have a huge problem there. Because they don't engage 196 00:12:26,070 --> 00:12:29,550 with that template with that wording, as well as other 197 00:12:29,550 --> 00:12:35,670 people. So these are in terms of channels, digital contact 198 00:12:35,670 --> 00:12:38,310 methods is absolutely important. It's number one factor that came 199 00:12:38,310 --> 00:12:40,890 out. And then the second one is once you've caught their 200 00:12:40,890 --> 00:12:45,060 attention, what's next you have to convert them right. And 201 00:12:45,090 --> 00:12:50,250 especially during a season period, wherever it's going to 202 00:12:50,250 --> 00:12:53,670 be have a lot of past due accounts past the receivables 203 00:12:53,670 --> 00:12:56,760 out there, you want to be able to offer them a flexible payment 204 00:12:56,760 --> 00:13:00,060 options. That's the number one number two reason they came out. 205 00:13:00,900 --> 00:13:04,020 And it's extremely important in weather. So rule number one, you 206 00:13:04,020 --> 00:13:06,690 put in some digital channels. And then number two, you convert 207 00:13:06,690 --> 00:13:10,920 them with flexibility. That is what we are focused on it with 208 00:13:10,950 --> 00:13:15,660 Alexa is to offer technology that can automate that because 209 00:13:15,660 --> 00:13:19,050 at the end of the day, one other important thing is that you may 210 00:13:19,050 --> 00:13:22,860 have enough manpower to handle your current collection, the 211 00:13:22,890 --> 00:13:27,120 early delinquencies or, or or a portion of those recipients do 212 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:30,240 receivables. But you won't be able to do the to handle all the 213 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:35,910 backlog. So automation will be key to helping or establishing a 214 00:13:35,910 --> 00:13:39,780 resilient collection strategy. I'll stop there no looking get 215 00:13:39,780 --> 00:13:42,090 back to other. Yeah. 216 00:13:43,530 --> 00:13:45,450 Nathan Slee: Great and great comments, guys. And I'll kind of 217 00:13:45,450 --> 00:13:49,470 echo you know, I'll echo a lot of that. I mean, certainly 218 00:13:49,470 --> 00:13:52,380 echoing Brian's sentiment, I think everyone felt this with 219 00:13:52,950 --> 00:13:56,550 bigger description, Brian of COVID, kind of, you know, start 220 00:13:56,550 --> 00:13:59,790 to now is, you know, I think a lot of boardrooms, were having a 221 00:13:59,790 --> 00:14:02,010 lot of the similar conversations that sounds like you guys were 222 00:14:02,010 --> 00:14:05,190 having. And I think a lot of us have been at least pleasantly 223 00:14:05,190 --> 00:14:07,830 surprised in the short term that the results are a lot different 224 00:14:07,830 --> 00:14:12,090 than expected. Also, I agree with both you guys that, you 225 00:14:12,090 --> 00:14:15,330 know, the wave is coming. I think we're all preparing for 226 00:14:15,330 --> 00:14:20,700 it. And, yeah, we're no different for sure. You know, my 227 00:14:20,700 --> 00:14:24,570 kind of high level comments, I think the way that I look at you 228 00:14:24,570 --> 00:14:26,850 know, how to build this resilient collection strategy is 229 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,350 the things I'll mention are things that that anyone should 230 00:14:31,350 --> 00:14:35,010 probably be doing anyway. But I think because there's a massive 231 00:14:35,010 --> 00:14:38,010 wave, it's going to force us right, like I can, I can 232 00:14:38,010 --> 00:14:40,500 prescribe a bunch of stuff. And I think the things I'm going to 233 00:14:40,500 --> 00:14:43,950 mention probably apply to most businesses, right? It's more for 234 00:14:43,950 --> 00:14:49,080 me, the strategy is more about, you know, broader trends in a 235 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:54,030 lot of different product lines. And then, you know, an event 236 00:14:54,030 --> 00:14:56,400 like COVID It forces us to sharpen our pencils and get to 237 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,610 work on it. So the things that I see in the marketplace and we'll 238 00:14:59,610 --> 00:15:04,260 see every We're so you know, hyper personalization, right? A 239 00:15:04,260 --> 00:15:07,620 little bit to the, to the point of channel management. But it's 240 00:15:07,620 --> 00:15:09,900 deeper than that. Right? It's, you know, again, similar to what 241 00:15:09,900 --> 00:15:13,620 Amir was saying, get customers in the right channels with the 242 00:15:13,620 --> 00:15:16,800 right message that's hyper personalized to them. Right? 243 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,260 We're all used to it. Now every ad we see on the internet is 244 00:15:19,260 --> 00:15:22,050 hyper personalized to us, you know, everything that marketers 245 00:15:22,050 --> 00:15:24,750 are sending our way is hyper personalized. Right. And so a 246 00:15:24,750 --> 00:15:27,450 lot of that is it's about, I think, historically, the 247 00:15:27,510 --> 00:15:30,210 collection agency or the collections world has been a 248 00:15:30,210 --> 00:15:33,390 little bit like, you owe us money. So we're in the driver's 249 00:15:33,390 --> 00:15:37,530 seat. Right. And I think consumers, millennials, the 250 00:15:37,530 --> 00:15:39,960 younger generation, you know, they expect a different 251 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,600 interaction, they expect everything hyper personalized. 252 00:15:42,870 --> 00:15:45,420 And again, I can say that any business, not just collections. 253 00:15:47,190 --> 00:15:48,930 Amir Tajkariml: I think the thing is the reason I'm sorry, 254 00:15:49,380 --> 00:15:53,250 this this collection, this collection has never done it. 255 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,190 Right. A lot of other segments that have done it collection has 256 00:15:56,190 --> 00:15:56,910 never done it. 257 00:15:57,660 --> 00:15:59,520 Nathan Slee: Right. So it's a great, it's a great opportunity, 258 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:02,700 right? There's, there's low hanging fruit there. I think the 259 00:16:02,700 --> 00:16:06,120 other thing that I see is, is, you know, it's, we're in an 260 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,210 instant gratification world, right? You know, I think about 261 00:16:09,210 --> 00:16:13,320 payment experience, like when I first got a Visa card, you know, 262 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,560 I'd have to if I went to a merchant, they'd print out a 263 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:19,680 little slip, and I'd have to sign it. Right. Now I get 264 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,890 annoyed if they don't have tap. Right. So again, it's similar in 265 00:16:22,890 --> 00:16:25,080 the collection space, right? If you're trying to collect money 266 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,710 from someone, you want to make it as easy as possible, you 267 00:16:28,710 --> 00:16:31,680 know, hit them play in this space, where they they play if 268 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:36,210 they're used to making a payment online with PayPal with, you 269 00:16:36,210 --> 00:16:39,030 know, the credit card with Apple Pay, whatever it is, right? 270 00:16:39,030 --> 00:16:41,940 We're getting so impatient as consumers. And I think if if, 271 00:16:41,970 --> 00:16:45,030 if, with our collection strategies, we can adapt to that 272 00:16:45,030 --> 00:16:49,350 same philosophy, reduce friction, reduce friction, I 273 00:16:49,350 --> 00:16:53,100 think the expectations are really high. And, you know, as 274 00:16:53,100 --> 00:16:55,290 Brian says, We want to be at the top of mind at the top of their 275 00:16:55,290 --> 00:16:58,740 kind of payment stack. Well, if I've got three emails sitting 276 00:16:58,740 --> 00:17:01,740 there, and one is a PDF form, that I've got to print out sign 277 00:17:01,740 --> 00:17:04,410 and fill in my credit card number by hand, or if I've got 278 00:17:04,410 --> 00:17:07,320 one, that's Apple Pay, you know which one I'm gonna pay first, 279 00:17:07,350 --> 00:17:10,230 right? And obviously, you know, maybe I'm speaking to a more 280 00:17:10,230 --> 00:17:13,860 tech comfortable generation, but there's more and more in our 281 00:17:13,860 --> 00:17:18,270 pools. I think Brian was, we were planning to get into this 282 00:17:18,270 --> 00:17:21,780 as well, I think that the other thing is, is trying to build a 283 00:17:21,780 --> 00:17:24,660 data driven strategy, right, we're all sitting on hordes and 284 00:17:24,660 --> 00:17:29,190 hordes of data. And, you know, you hear a lot of AI and machine 285 00:17:29,190 --> 00:17:32,460 learning, and all these kinds of buzzwords. Some of it sounds 286 00:17:32,460 --> 00:17:35,280 really scary, but to be quite honest, you know, anytime I've 287 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:37,230 looked under the hood of someone who's talking about an AI 288 00:17:37,230 --> 00:17:39,480 solution, it's really not actually as complicated and make 289 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,090 it sound, you know, they want to make it sound really sexy to 290 00:17:42,090 --> 00:17:45,330 attract investors and attention. But really, it's actually so it 291 00:17:45,330 --> 00:17:48,420 gets my point on that is, don't be intimidated. Right, by don't 292 00:17:48,420 --> 00:17:51,270 be intimidated by trying to dive into your data. It's not as 293 00:17:51,270 --> 00:17:53,760 scary as it sounds. And there's lots of people that, you know, 294 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:56,790 that can help. But we're all sitting on a lot of data that 295 00:17:56,790 --> 00:18:00,480 can help us kind of get back to that hyper personalization or 296 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,300 segmentation, right? Find ways if you don't have internal 297 00:18:03,300 --> 00:18:06,180 expertise, find some third parties, find some outside 298 00:18:06,270 --> 00:18:09,600 resources, and really dive into your data and understand how you 299 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:13,620 can, you know, segment personalize, you know, hit hit 300 00:18:13,620 --> 00:18:17,070 people where they are, I guess, I think, I think all of this is 301 00:18:17,100 --> 00:18:20,130 these, you know, sort of tidbits, I think are stuff that 302 00:18:20,130 --> 00:18:22,170 like I said, we should be applying anyway, in any 303 00:18:22,170 --> 00:18:25,260 business. But, you know, collections is kind of ripe for 304 00:18:25,260 --> 00:18:28,950 it. Right for for disruption, right for kind of innovation. 305 00:18:28,950 --> 00:18:33,060 And I think I think the coming wave is gonna force people to 306 00:18:33,060 --> 00:18:34,740 kind of innovate or fall behind. 307 00:18:34,740 --> 00:18:37,630 Bryan Szemenyei: And I'd emphasize as well, just to kind 308 00:18:37,630 --> 00:18:40,390 of echo what you're saying, Nathan, is that this group, I 309 00:18:40,390 --> 00:18:45,040 mean, the CLA members, you know, should be a group in our group 310 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:48,670 that are more comfortable with data and know more about the 311 00:18:48,670 --> 00:18:52,390 customers. And I think a big bank or sort of a big lender or 312 00:18:52,750 --> 00:18:56,860 sort of a legacy lender would. And although the big banks have 313 00:18:56,860 --> 00:18:59,710 a lot of information available to them, it's they surprisingly, 314 00:18:59,710 --> 00:19:03,910 don't do a really effective job of deploying and utilizing that 315 00:19:03,910 --> 00:19:07,360 information within a recovery strategy. They do a really good 316 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:09,670 job of using that information and customer acquisition 317 00:19:09,670 --> 00:19:12,940 strategy and for fraud prevention, but they don't do as 318 00:19:12,940 --> 00:19:15,550 good of a job on the back end when something is sort of rolled 319 00:19:15,550 --> 00:19:20,890 into a non customer category. So I would say that it's not only 320 00:19:20,890 --> 00:19:25,000 as the sort of the market ripe, but I think this group should 321 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,580 should have the tools and the expertise to be able to sort of 322 00:19:27,580 --> 00:19:31,090 capture that it takes a little bit of elbow grease, and it does 323 00:19:31,090 --> 00:19:35,110 require a focused effort. But it is it should be something that 324 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:36,760 that we're able to obtain. 325 00:19:41,590 --> 00:19:44,800 James Rose: Something I think you kind of touched on sort of 326 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,680 mirrors, specifically backdrop, you know, when we're talking 327 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:54,010 about flexible payment options are hyper personalization. But, 328 00:19:54,310 --> 00:19:56,860 you know, just in terms of the changing environment and talking 329 00:19:56,860 --> 00:20:01,150 about automation, what kind of strategy Jeez, what can be done 330 00:20:01,150 --> 00:20:03,760 at anything when, you know, sort of you're dealing with, you 331 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:06,640 know, a bulk amount of, you know, possible, you know, 332 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,880 collections. And you're talking about hyper personalization. 333 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:13,300 But, you know, when things are consistently changing, how can 334 00:20:13,300 --> 00:20:17,530 you consistently, you know, try to personalize, when people's 335 00:20:17,530 --> 00:20:21,010 circumstances are so precarious, and, you know, one day they 336 00:20:21,010 --> 00:20:26,920 might be able to pay, but then you know, that it's next month, 337 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:29,950 a month, things are continuously changing for them is a way to 338 00:20:29,950 --> 00:20:32,650 personalize that as their options in order to deal with 339 00:20:32,650 --> 00:20:35,380 those types of situations. You know, presumably, it's 340 00:20:35,380 --> 00:20:38,710 technology, but perhaps we can sort of talk about that, given 341 00:20:38,710 --> 00:20:41,320 that, you know, certainly one of, you know, provide 342 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:44,830 flexibility and personalization. But on the other hand, you can't 343 00:20:44,830 --> 00:20:47,920 be so granular that you're dealing with just one customer 344 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,650 all the time. And, you know, their particular situations. 345 00:20:51,670 --> 00:20:53,320 Bryan Szemenyei: Yeah that sort of emphasizes the 346 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:57,340 personalization is kind of a an Nathan could probably speak more 347 00:20:57,340 --> 00:20:59,440 accurately than I but it's sort of a form of really 348 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:03,220 sophisticated segmentation, where you try and understand 349 00:21:03,220 --> 00:21:06,190 what a customer, what kind of general box a customer might fit 350 00:21:06,190 --> 00:21:10,000 into, and what type of person that that customer is, what what 351 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,400 point in their life cycle they are, what point in their credit 352 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:15,250 cycle they are, what their propensities are, to repay what 353 00:21:15,250 --> 00:21:18,880 their capabilities are to repay. And trying to define that 354 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:21,850 personalization, you can generally group people into 355 00:21:21,850 --> 00:21:25,150 certain areas to indicate to say that this type of customer, this 356 00:21:25,150 --> 00:21:29,170 customer block fits within a category within my overall 357 00:21:29,290 --> 00:21:32,740 portfolio, that they're just not capable right now they don't 358 00:21:32,740 --> 00:21:35,800 have the capacity in order to repay me at this time they're 359 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:38,830 unemployed, they have no assets, you know, they're living at 360 00:21:38,830 --> 00:21:40,900 home, they have nobody they can rely on, there's just there's 361 00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:43,390 nothing within that personalization, that this 362 00:21:43,390 --> 00:21:47,620 person is going to be time well spent on your side to put 363 00:21:47,620 --> 00:21:51,670 resources behind trying to collect on that individual. But 364 00:21:51,670 --> 00:21:54,670 what that doesn't mean is that that person or that group of 365 00:21:54,670 --> 00:21:57,760 people are not somebody that you want to try and maintain a 366 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,090 relationship with, because that situation will change, these 367 00:22:01,090 --> 00:22:04,600 boxes are not static, and people are dynamically moving around 368 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,870 from them and their capacities over time. So if there is a 369 00:22:07,870 --> 00:22:11,890 group of people that you kind of deemed to be low capacity, low 370 00:22:11,890 --> 00:22:16,600 propensity, in your overall group of accounts, you don't 371 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:18,700 want to actually spend time on those guys, you might not even 372 00:22:18,700 --> 00:22:21,280 try and collect on those accounts at all, because you'll 373 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:23,860 just be throwing good money after bad. But you do want to 374 00:22:23,860 --> 00:22:26,830 maintain a relationship with those people and try and make 375 00:22:26,830 --> 00:22:31,210 sure it may maintain some sort of degree of sort of ongoing 376 00:22:31,210 --> 00:22:34,780 thread into them. So that way, when their situation changes, 377 00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:38,080 you can reach back into them or they can reach back into you. So 378 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:42,310 don't look at these hyper personalisations as being fixed. 379 00:22:42,310 --> 00:22:43,930 They change constantly. 380 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:46,360 Amir Tajkariml: Yeah, absolutely. And I love that 381 00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:49,810 Brian said, keep the relationship absolute, it's It's 382 00:22:50,050 --> 00:22:53,320 spot on communication, and segmentation is only the first 383 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:58,780 part. That's really, that's step one. Once you've done that, even 384 00:22:58,780 --> 00:23:00,700 through technology, whether you're communicating via digital 385 00:23:00,700 --> 00:23:04,180 channels, there are certain KPIs that you can put in place. So 386 00:23:04,180 --> 00:23:09,220 you can detect if oh, this person is not engaging as they 387 00:23:09,220 --> 00:23:12,730 used to, or this person is not paying as they used to. So it's 388 00:23:12,730 --> 00:23:15,910 super easy to put in place doesn't take AI, I mean, you can 389 00:23:15,910 --> 00:23:20,560 just I don't know, this person is not opening the emails or 390 00:23:20,590 --> 00:23:23,860 clicking on the pay button as fast as it used to be or they go 391 00:23:23,860 --> 00:23:27,220 on the pay button six times before actually paying. So 392 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,880 there's certain trends that you can, you can detect to see if 393 00:23:31,210 --> 00:23:34,690 beyond the hyper personalization or beyond the segmentation, 394 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:38,590 something is not going as planned. And these KPIs within 395 00:23:38,590 --> 00:23:41,980 your collection strategy will indicate that they will divulge 396 00:23:41,980 --> 00:23:45,640 some information for you to act accordingly. So maintain that 397 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,430 relationship, whether it's in person, ideally not and you want 398 00:23:48,430 --> 00:23:50,770 to make it as automated as possible. I'm talking because 399 00:23:50,770 --> 00:23:55,960 I'm a tech guy. But, ideally, yeah, you can put some KPIs in 400 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:58,870 place so that you can there's some information that pops out 401 00:23:58,870 --> 00:24:03,820 when something is going wrong or something is not being as as, as 402 00:24:03,820 --> 00:24:06,490 regular as it used to be. It used to be there was in my 403 00:24:06,490 --> 00:24:06,850 opinion. 404 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:13,780 Nathan Slee: I'll touch on. I'll touch on that question. Maybe 405 00:24:13,810 --> 00:24:17,620 James, I think because, you know, I sort of started this 406 00:24:17,620 --> 00:24:21,490 hyper personalization comment. I'm just trying to now I gotta 407 00:24:21,490 --> 00:24:24,220 navigate zoom to. James, you have that question in front of 408 00:24:24,220 --> 00:24:25,930 you. So I had it up in this. No, there it is. 409 00:24:26,250 --> 00:24:29,760 James Rose: Yeah, it was a question just about hyper 410 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:32,580 personalization versus privacy. Is there a line drawn in the 411 00:24:32,580 --> 00:24:33,750 context of collections? 412 00:24:34,290 --> 00:24:36,060 Nathan Slee: And I think the way I think of it was probably more 413 00:24:36,060 --> 00:24:38,760 the way Brian and Amir were talking about it, where it's 414 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:43,650 more about using the data you have to understand and respond 415 00:24:43,650 --> 00:24:47,520 to the behaviors that you're seeing. Right. So understand 416 00:24:47,550 --> 00:24:50,610 your own like segment your own portfolio and understand which 417 00:24:50,610 --> 00:24:54,240 segments want to be want to hear from you at what time of day how 418 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:59,250 frequently you want to use what payment methods right I don't 419 00:24:59,250 --> 00:25:01,860 think you're good dig into any privacy concerns or using your 420 00:25:01,860 --> 00:25:06,660 own data to understand your your portfolio's and their behavior. 421 00:25:06,660 --> 00:25:09,030 And then I think Brian's right is probably more accurate to 422 00:25:09,030 --> 00:25:12,840 call it hyper segmentation, and understanding each segments 423 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,300 behavior and each segments preferences. And again, you can 424 00:25:15,300 --> 00:25:18,150 do that all with your own, with your own data, where it's not 425 00:25:18,150 --> 00:25:20,460 about digging deeper into the customer's kind of personal 426 00:25:20,460 --> 00:25:20,880 data. 427 00:25:21,990 --> 00:25:24,330 Amir Tajkariml: And I guess I'm putting my previous previous 428 00:25:24,330 --> 00:25:28,800 life as a banking lawyer hat, you use, you know, privacy, you 429 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,190 use the data that you need, in order to offer the service that 430 00:25:32,220 --> 00:25:35,820 the customer needs, beyond any other data, that's where you go 431 00:25:35,820 --> 00:25:37,890 into the gray zone. And you don't want to do that, you 432 00:25:37,890 --> 00:25:40,620 always need to use the data just to offer the purpose, the 433 00:25:40,620 --> 00:25:43,560 service that the customer needs. And at the end of the day, 434 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:46,650 within collections, segmentation is a service that the customer 435 00:25:46,650 --> 00:25:49,890 needs. So you see, I mean, if you don't need to know their 436 00:25:49,890 --> 00:25:54,120 their sex or their or their, their age, in order to offer 437 00:25:54,180 --> 00:25:57,270 good collection strategy, you might want to avoid that rule of 438 00:25:57,270 --> 00:26:01,080 thumb, but there are some great sales. But in terms of data, you 439 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:05,370 always want to use the strict minimum, let's say in a good 440 00:26:05,370 --> 00:26:08,100 rule of thumb in order to offer the best services possible. And 441 00:26:08,100 --> 00:26:12,300 that best service and that minimum, are often like zones 442 00:26:12,300 --> 00:26:14,430 that you have to be very delicate with. 443 00:26:15,300 --> 00:26:17,310 Bryan Szemenyei: I think that's a good point here. I mean, and 444 00:26:17,310 --> 00:26:21,120 generally, there are certain aspects, I mean, of of your data 445 00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:23,670 that you want to make sure you, you understand are more 446 00:26:23,670 --> 00:26:26,460 sensitive than others, even if you are segmenting people down. 447 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:28,980 You don't want to be breaking, you don't want to let the 448 00:26:28,980 --> 00:26:32,880 machine just sort of determine your behavior. Because if you 449 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,850 are breaking people down in a way that is based on their age, 450 00:26:35,850 --> 00:26:39,540 or is based on a socio economic status that ends up meaning you 451 00:26:39,540 --> 00:26:42,210 treat different groups differently and offer maybe a 452 00:26:42,210 --> 00:26:46,980 different settlement option or a different resolution option to 453 00:26:46,980 --> 00:26:51,570 one group than another, then you can run into issues. But that's 454 00:26:51,570 --> 00:26:53,700 where it's that's some of the art and making sure that your 455 00:26:53,700 --> 00:26:56,700 data is being and your your models are being effectively 456 00:26:56,700 --> 00:26:59,790 moderated so that you don't just sort of let the machine run 457 00:26:59,790 --> 00:27:01,680 wild. But it's an it's a good point. 458 00:27:07,980 --> 00:27:11,040 James Rose: So couldn't they go right? LM? Do you guys do sort 459 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:13,920 of segmentation as well? Or do you guys have maybe a little bit 460 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:18,030 of a different strategy, just in terms of, you know, just in 461 00:27:18,030 --> 00:27:20,130 terms of channels and what have you? 462 00:27:22,050 --> 00:27:23,910 Clinton Hosannah: Yeah, definitely, I want to first 463 00:27:23,910 --> 00:27:28,290 thank the CLA for including us here in this in this panel is 464 00:27:28,290 --> 00:27:31,350 very interesting hearing what everyone else is saying. And 465 00:27:31,350 --> 00:27:35,910 I'll echo a lot of what they've said, I would only add that, you 466 00:27:35,910 --> 00:27:41,640 know, for us a good collection strategy, while using data and 467 00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,120 data mining to make sure that we stay on top of things, also 468 00:27:45,780 --> 00:27:50,490 includes responsible lending, and especially in with a 469 00:27:50,730 --> 00:27:55,050 possible looming second wave of COVID. And obviously, the 470 00:27:55,590 --> 00:28:00,630 impending end of government help to the people that that need, 471 00:28:00,630 --> 00:28:03,510 and even the companies that needed therefore employing 472 00:28:03,510 --> 00:28:10,110 people. We also wanted to add not just to the to the data 473 00:28:10,110 --> 00:28:14,220 mining and the tech aspect to it to a more empathetic look at our 474 00:28:14,220 --> 00:28:19,320 book, and segment it in where we take certain demographics. And 475 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,190 then from that, do a focus group, if you will, and talk to 476 00:28:23,190 --> 00:28:26,580 people preemptively. You know, maybe when we gave them the 477 00:28:26,580 --> 00:28:28,980 loan, in the beginning, there were indicators that they were 478 00:28:28,980 --> 00:28:32,040 probably in a higher risk category, and talk to them about 479 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:34,440 what they're going through what they're seeing happening in your 480 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:39,390 own life. And then from that be able to glean from it which we 481 00:28:39,390 --> 00:28:44,670 have strategies that are kind of pro proactive. In the event, 482 00:28:44,670 --> 00:28:50,340 there's a second wave. And for the obvious in eventful 483 00:28:51,030 --> 00:28:54,570 situation where when a funding stops, that there'll be a lot of 484 00:28:54,570 --> 00:29:00,420 people dealing with what they've done in terms of deferrals and 485 00:29:00,420 --> 00:29:03,420 whatnot and having to kind of reconcile that in their own in 486 00:29:03,420 --> 00:29:07,560 their own homes. That being said, some of the data that 487 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:12,510 we've received not just from the actual what we have on file for 488 00:29:12,510 --> 00:29:16,710 them, but to compensation to a segment of the population. We've 489 00:29:16,710 --> 00:29:23,040 been able to establish programs that someone can opt into and I 490 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:27,300 know when you're dealing with with massive quantity, it can be 491 00:29:27,300 --> 00:29:32,520 labor risk, but where that labor is concerned will help us get 492 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,000 more market share in the long run especially through word of 493 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:36,300 mouth. 494 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,090 James Rose: So what are the questions that kind of did have 495 00:29:48,090 --> 00:29:53,100 as well kind of went around just feeling and understanding 496 00:29:53,130 --> 00:29:55,320 particularly with its within this time just just trying to 497 00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,260 understand your economics clearly. Because right now, you 498 00:29:58,260 --> 00:30:01,890 know, we mentioned there's been In a huge influx of government 499 00:30:01,890 --> 00:30:04,890 cash, we assume that there's going to be, you know, a wave 500 00:30:04,890 --> 00:30:07,860 that eventually there's going to be withdrawal of, you know, some 501 00:30:07,890 --> 00:30:12,780 some of that cash. So how do we kind of avoid throwing good 502 00:30:12,780 --> 00:30:16,290 money after bad? And what are some of the strategies that we 503 00:30:16,290 --> 00:30:18,600 can, you know, employ? What are some of the things that we 504 00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:23,100 should actually you don't focus on? Is it? Or do we just go for, 505 00:30:23,310 --> 00:30:26,850 you know, the large, potentially large receivables? Or, you know, 506 00:30:26,850 --> 00:30:31,260 do we sort of focus again, with those segmentations certain 507 00:30:31,260 --> 00:30:34,380 segments where we think we can get more receivables initially, 508 00:30:34,380 --> 00:30:39,120 and then perhaps, once things taper off and get a little bit 509 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:42,690 better, we can, you know, go against other receivables. So, 510 00:30:42,690 --> 00:30:44,880 sort of what are some of the strategies to ensure that, you 511 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,850 know, just isn't certainly in the medium term anyway, short 512 00:30:47,850 --> 00:30:52,230 medium term that we're using resources and our economics 513 00:30:52,380 --> 00:30:53,760 appropriately and efficiently. 514 00:30:55,190 --> 00:30:58,400 Bryan Szemenyei: Yeah, this is, sorry, no, please go on. 515 00:30:59,250 --> 00:31:01,860 Clinton Hosannah: I think that because these are uncertain 516 00:31:01,860 --> 00:31:08,040 times, that there has to be a certain amount of expenditure 517 00:31:08,250 --> 00:31:13,350 that's allocated, to just kind of dealing with that exact type 518 00:31:13,350 --> 00:31:15,990 of thing. And it's something that we have to eat knowing that 519 00:31:16,740 --> 00:31:20,250 within the next 12 to 18 months, that'll come back, obviously, 520 00:31:20,250 --> 00:31:24,000 the businesses out there to be had, and, you know, kind of like 521 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,930 the canary in the minefield right now, will be the way 522 00:31:27,930 --> 00:31:33,690 receivables are, are going to be affected? Should there be a 523 00:31:33,690 --> 00:31:38,910 second wave and if there isn't, with, with the ending of, of the 524 00:31:38,910 --> 00:31:44,820 government stimulus, seeing how many people and a lot of studies 525 00:31:44,820 --> 00:31:48,660 out there that are staying on top of that hardcore, of how 526 00:31:48,660 --> 00:31:52,410 people will actually be impacted by that, and then we'll be able 527 00:31:52,410 --> 00:31:54,870 to scale up going going for it, but there has to be some 528 00:31:54,870 --> 00:31:57,330 understanding that there's going to be some money spent, and will 529 00:31:57,330 --> 00:32:01,830 be more than the not in terms of keeping your some of your 530 00:32:01,830 --> 00:32:05,340 receivables anyways, and the more customer service based type 531 00:32:05,340 --> 00:32:07,200 of scenario, instead of going third party. 532 00:32:09,930 --> 00:32:12,180 Bryan Szemenyei: Yeah, I mean, it is a challenging time to 533 00:32:12,180 --> 00:32:15,300 understand what it you know, what segments are going to 534 00:32:15,300 --> 00:32:17,550 behave in what way because as Clinton says, the government 535 00:32:17,550 --> 00:32:21,390 stimulus programs have just sort of, you know, poked the machine 536 00:32:21,390 --> 00:32:23,910 and now the machine is acting in ways that it never has before. 537 00:32:23,910 --> 00:32:26,310 But there's, there's sort of two elements that I would sort of 538 00:32:26,310 --> 00:32:28,950 highlight as far as understanding your economics. 539 00:32:29,220 --> 00:32:32,490 And that's really just getting really clear down to what your 540 00:32:32,490 --> 00:32:35,670 unit costs are on a lot of these fronts. And there's, there's two 541 00:32:35,670 --> 00:32:39,480 pieces that make that tricky one is, you get sort of emotionally 542 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:41,700 attached to the loan that you've given out. And if you've given 543 00:32:41,700 --> 00:32:44,940 out a $10,000 loan, you then go to that person and try and 544 00:32:44,940 --> 00:32:50,520 collect a $10,000 loan, that number is gone, that person has 545 00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:53,100 an a different situation than when the loan was originated, 546 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:55,410 could have been a health incident could have been a job 547 00:32:55,410 --> 00:32:58,410 loss could have been macro economic factors, but that all 548 00:32:58,410 --> 00:33:01,830 that number represents is the ceiling of the number that you 549 00:33:01,830 --> 00:33:05,850 are possibly able to recover from that person, it does not 550 00:33:05,850 --> 00:33:08,310 represent that is the number that you have to be going after 551 00:33:08,310 --> 00:33:13,110 that individual for because that person's capacity and propensity 552 00:33:13,110 --> 00:33:15,330 to be able to repay you has changed dramatically over that 553 00:33:15,330 --> 00:33:18,150 period of time. So you almost have to re adjudicate that 554 00:33:18,150 --> 00:33:22,110 individual to say how much credit is this person worth 555 00:33:22,110 --> 00:33:25,950 given their current situation? And would I take this amount of 556 00:33:25,950 --> 00:33:30,480 credit in replacement for the $10,000 account or the $20,000 557 00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,420 account that I previously had. And that can be a difficult 558 00:33:33,420 --> 00:33:37,410 emotional point to make, and that you still get attached to 559 00:33:37,410 --> 00:33:40,590 the $10,000 account. And you may want to hang around the hoop and 560 00:33:40,590 --> 00:33:43,020 say, You know what, I'm not going to take a lower amount. 561 00:33:43,020 --> 00:33:45,780 But as we sort of said earlier, just maintain a relationship, 562 00:33:45,780 --> 00:33:48,630 because we think in the future, the person will have capacity, 563 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:53,580 or will have the desire to repay me. So that's sort of item one. 564 00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,150 The second item is about understanding your cost 565 00:33:57,150 --> 00:34:00,540 structure much more clearly than you previously have. So you 566 00:34:00,540 --> 00:34:05,010 don't want to spend $3,000 chasing an account that is only 567 00:34:05,010 --> 00:34:07,710 $2,500 in balance, right? I mean, that's just kind of 568 00:34:07,710 --> 00:34:11,250 obvious. But, you know, you've got to really understand how 569 00:34:11,250 --> 00:34:15,810 these costs that you incur, compare against the benefits 570 00:34:15,810 --> 00:34:18,720 that you're that you're getting on them. And if you're spending 571 00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:22,230 an inordinate amount of money to try and track down low balance 572 00:34:22,230 --> 00:34:25,530 accounts, or even mid balance accounts, then you probably 573 00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:28,140 could be taking those dollars and redeploying them into 574 00:34:28,140 --> 00:34:31,920 originations and making a better return on equity in that side of 575 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,430 your business. So it is a it is something you really understand 576 00:34:35,430 --> 00:34:38,130 need to understand your your unit economics and and your 577 00:34:38,130 --> 00:34:40,350 opportunity costs much more clearly. 578 00:34:42,539 --> 00:34:45,749 Amir Tajkariml: I again, I agree. We're aligned on a lot of 579 00:34:45,749 --> 00:34:51,869 things that Clinton and Brian said in my opinion in terms of 580 00:34:51,869 --> 00:34:54,989 treating where how you attack your receivables i I personally 581 00:34:54,989 --> 00:34:57,749 believe that not you know, not everybody is an absolute 582 00:34:57,749 --> 00:34:59,969 delinquent as soon as they are laden on an on a on an 583 00:34:59,999 --> 00:35:04,589 receivable. I think one strategy can be to focus on the low 584 00:35:04,589 --> 00:35:09,149 hanging fruit. Early delinquency can be salvaged through 585 00:35:09,149 --> 00:35:13,019 automation. Again, to come back to that. I think automation can 586 00:35:13,019 --> 00:35:17,339 help attack a lot of those receivables that can be self 587 00:35:17,339 --> 00:35:21,089 cured. And you can allow your team, your collection agents to 588 00:35:21,089 --> 00:35:23,579 actually focus on the more complex accounts, the ones that 589 00:35:23,579 --> 00:35:26,729 actually need human intervention, those can have 590 00:35:26,729 --> 00:35:29,789 their own treatment cycle, those can have their own strategy. But 591 00:35:29,789 --> 00:35:33,749 there's a lot of a portion of it, where you can, you can 592 00:35:33,749 --> 00:35:37,199 automate and collect from using using automation using using 593 00:35:37,409 --> 00:35:42,509 software. And that will allow you to basically kind of fucking 594 00:35:42,509 --> 00:35:45,329 hone down on what are we actually focusing on? Because a 595 00:35:45,329 --> 00:35:49,739 lot of it is being handled in the background? That's one thing 596 00:35:49,739 --> 00:35:51,749 and I noticed that very interesting question. I think 597 00:35:51,749 --> 00:35:55,739 Kevin is put there, James, that okay, if I answer it, or well, 598 00:35:55,739 --> 00:35:58,469 we'll give her opinion on it. Is that okay? I can't hear you. 599 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:05,310 Clinton Hosannah: Yeah, go ahead. Please, go ahead. 600 00:36:06,750 --> 00:36:10,530 Amir Tajkariml: Yeah. And it's, we noticed is, how effective is 601 00:36:10,530 --> 00:36:14,670 having multiple payment methods? Do you see there's a substantial 602 00:36:14,670 --> 00:36:17,760 decrease for defaults, we noticed that adding credit card, 603 00:36:17,820 --> 00:36:22,680 bank transfer and PayPal, it just it absolutely increases 604 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:26,430 payment methods. Because don't forget, quite often, maybe one 605 00:36:26,430 --> 00:36:29,760 account doesn't have money, but your payroll is now deposited 606 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,490 into another account, you didn't have time to transfer that 607 00:36:32,490 --> 00:36:36,030 account, or that payment method, just being able to do it and 608 00:36:36,030 --> 00:36:39,090 select different accounts on your own on your mobile is 609 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:44,040 absolutely tremendous. And it really increases your collection 610 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:46,920 rates. And the other one, how effective is communication via 611 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,220 social media? Again, I'm putting my my previous lawyer hat, 612 00:36:50,670 --> 00:36:54,720 usually, when a loan is given to a consumer, you have a clause in 613 00:36:54,720 --> 00:36:57,000 there that says you allow us to communicate with you via the 614 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,450 method that you have provided, if one of those method is social 615 00:37:00,450 --> 00:37:03,690 media, I guess it's okay. But it's very, very rare that you 616 00:37:03,690 --> 00:37:07,980 give your Twitter handle or your Facebook handle to it. And in 617 00:37:07,980 --> 00:37:12,300 terms of commercial loans, you always have section 13 is always 618 00:37:12,300 --> 00:37:15,780 there right before miscellaneous that says notices can be sent to 619 00:37:15,780 --> 00:37:19,800 this email address or this email address for the borrower or 620 00:37:19,860 --> 00:37:24,960 creditor. So I mean, unless it's actually allowed, I don't think 621 00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:27,270 you can, you can send communication via social media, 622 00:37:27,270 --> 00:37:29,670 that's an opens Pandora's box, 623 00:37:30,150 --> 00:37:32,820 Bryan Szemenyei: I would echo that point is that, you know, 624 00:37:32,820 --> 00:37:36,000 going on, there are some precedents not in Canada, but 625 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:40,020 in, in Europe, and some in the US of companies trying to use 626 00:37:40,020 --> 00:37:44,190 social media as a as a means in order to collect. And it's sort 627 00:37:44,190 --> 00:37:46,770 of the equivalent to sort of driving up to somebody's house 628 00:37:46,770 --> 00:37:50,010 and then putting a stake in their lawn as this person owes 629 00:37:50,010 --> 00:37:53,250 money. And it really is not received well by government 630 00:37:53,250 --> 00:37:58,980 regulators, by rightfully so. So I would highly caution against 631 00:37:59,250 --> 00:38:03,540 against using social media as a as a channel, but the having 632 00:38:03,540 --> 00:38:07,170 multiple payment channels is certainly useful. Again, a point 633 00:38:07,170 --> 00:38:10,740 of caution is anytime you add multiple payment channels, you 634 00:38:10,740 --> 00:38:13,290 will cannibalize some of your previous payment channels, which 635 00:38:13,290 --> 00:38:15,660 might be fine. I mean, ultimately, the objective is to 636 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:18,630 remove friction from the customer's payment process 637 00:38:18,630 --> 00:38:22,260 cycle. But if you're sort of input, bringing in a payment 638 00:38:22,260 --> 00:38:25,200 processing system, for example, like I'll use square as an 639 00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:27,420 example, though, it's not one that you need to be you need to 640 00:38:27,420 --> 00:38:31,740 be physically there. But it has a very high transaction cost. If 641 00:38:31,740 --> 00:38:35,130 you're if you're cannibalizing some people from another payment 642 00:38:35,130 --> 00:38:39,780 cycle, which is a lower, lower cost transaction over to a 643 00:38:39,780 --> 00:38:42,840 higher cost transaction channel, you're just dropping your costs, 644 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,300 you're not really increasing your recoveries, there might be 645 00:38:45,300 --> 00:38:47,640 some offsetting effect there, but just make sure you 646 00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:50,850 understand that it's not about having 1000 different payment 647 00:38:50,850 --> 00:38:54,390 cycles, it's about having five really good payment channels. 648 00:38:55,620 --> 00:38:58,710 Nathan Slee: Just to pick up on that a little bit to go a little 649 00:38:58,710 --> 00:39:01,860 deeper on that. I mean, I think as we're all trying to roll out 650 00:39:01,860 --> 00:39:07,320 new strategies and come up with ways to be more resilient. You 651 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:09,930 know, don't don't be shy to start slow, right? Like, like, 652 00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:12,420 if you're rolling out a new payment tool, you know, roll it 653 00:39:12,420 --> 00:39:15,060 out to a very small segment, write test everything first be 654 00:39:15,060 --> 00:39:18,270 scientific about it, understand if it is having the desired 655 00:39:18,270 --> 00:39:20,790 impact or not having the desired impact, right, like don't get 656 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,990 don't panic and roll something out new to your entire portfolio 657 00:39:24,990 --> 00:39:27,690 without seeing if it's worked or not, right, give give everything 658 00:39:27,690 --> 00:39:30,990 a chance in a small test environment and measure those 659 00:39:30,990 --> 00:39:33,360 results to make sure that you're actually getting what you want. 660 00:39:34,500 --> 00:39:39,690 James Rose: Absolutely. I guess sort of to that point. So 661 00:39:39,690 --> 00:39:45,570 starting slow, is there any reimagining different types of 662 00:39:45,570 --> 00:39:48,900 partnerships for example, that, you know, we can exploit just in 663 00:39:48,900 --> 00:39:52,170 terms of more efficient strategies going forward just to 664 00:39:52,170 --> 00:39:56,100 ensure that you know, the old adage together we're stronger 665 00:39:56,280 --> 00:40:00,720 type thing is, is that any of your guys's mindsets are, you 666 00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:01,380 know, at this time? 667 00:40:02,399 --> 00:40:04,229 Clinton Hosannah: I'm planning to partner with everyone in this 668 00:40:04,229 --> 00:40:04,589 channel. 669 00:40:07,930 --> 00:40:10,090 Bryan Szemenyei: Well, and I think I think the point that I 670 00:40:10,090 --> 00:40:12,040 was trying to make and this is obviously sort of, you know, 671 00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:15,310 self serving is I think all of our businesses are built on the 672 00:40:15,310 --> 00:40:20,200 idea of partnering with each other. Because in in sort of an 673 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:23,530 individual basis, no company, you know, within the CLI makes 674 00:40:23,530 --> 00:40:27,220 up a significant conglomerate to an absolute behemoth 675 00:40:27,220 --> 00:40:30,550 organization, like a bank that has all of these verticals, and 676 00:40:30,550 --> 00:40:33,520 can build out all the components and build out their product 677 00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:36,190 teams and their tech teams, and they have 20 people on a single 678 00:40:36,190 --> 00:40:40,840 channel and all those pieces, that will never be the path for 679 00:40:40,870 --> 00:40:43,990 small business. And it shouldn't be, it's not the most effective 680 00:40:43,990 --> 00:40:48,850 way to to grow our businesses as a whole, because the opportunity 681 00:40:48,850 --> 00:40:51,730 costs and the resources and the time to deployment are just way 682 00:40:51,730 --> 00:40:55,930 too high. So I encourage all companies within the CLA to look 683 00:40:55,930 --> 00:41:01,030 into the network that this is because individually, we 684 00:41:01,030 --> 00:41:05,830 represent a vast array of very deep experts. And frankly, I 685 00:41:05,830 --> 00:41:09,130 think better experts than exist in a lot of more larger 686 00:41:09,130 --> 00:41:13,540 conglomerates. So collectively, you do have quite a expansive 687 00:41:13,690 --> 00:41:15,880 suite of capabilities, there's some things that you want to 688 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:17,950 internalize. And there's some things that you want to 689 00:41:17,950 --> 00:41:21,550 externalize. But I think partnerships are the much more 690 00:41:21,550 --> 00:41:26,620 effective way to deploy and test and decrease the risks that 691 00:41:26,620 --> 00:41:30,370 something will not, will not sort of be effectively launched. 692 00:41:30,370 --> 00:41:36,130 So yes, is this is the quicker answer to utilize partnerships 693 00:41:36,130 --> 00:41:36,970 wherever you can and. 694 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:41,410 Clinton Hosannah: You know, in this, in this age of 695 00:41:41,770 --> 00:41:46,990 uncertainty, especially as it relates to what may happen in in 696 00:41:46,990 --> 00:41:52,960 the fall, in regards to stimulus as well as possible second wave, 697 00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:58,930 Echo Brian's sentiments were I'm looking forward to being able to 698 00:42:00,250 --> 00:42:04,930 lobby government, federal and provincial for leverage that 699 00:42:04,930 --> 00:42:09,970 will allow for less red tape. And in certain instances when it 700 00:42:09,970 --> 00:42:13,690 comes to lending and for sure, in terms of collections, while 701 00:42:13,690 --> 00:42:18,400 being responsible, and having, you know, a kind of pulse on 702 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:22,960 what's happening with the the Canadian public still be able to 703 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:27,670 be effective at it, you know, because I will say that some of 704 00:42:27,670 --> 00:42:31,960 the people that we've heard from when it comes to collections, 705 00:42:32,140 --> 00:42:34,570 from what they hear in the media, what they have a clear 706 00:42:34,570 --> 00:42:37,120 understanding or not, it's kind of like, I don't have to pay in 707 00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:40,240 on their smug about it in the sense that, hey, you know, what, 708 00:42:40,240 --> 00:42:42,580 you know, it's COVID, you know, what I mean? And I'm thinking to 709 00:42:42,580 --> 00:42:46,510 myself, you know, you have to be wise, I don't want to say 710 00:42:46,510 --> 00:42:49,750 something to them that's going to, you know, make them feel 711 00:42:49,750 --> 00:42:51,910 like, they have no understanding, but the truth of 712 00:42:51,910 --> 00:42:54,430 the matter is that, you know, with deferrals and taken 713 00:42:54,430 --> 00:42:56,500 advantage of these types of things, whether it's with us or 714 00:42:56,500 --> 00:42:59,890 with a big bank, the chickens will, at one time, come home to 715 00:42:59,890 --> 00:43:05,110 roost, you know, and we'll be there still. So I think the CLA 716 00:43:05,110 --> 00:43:09,460 being this conduit to be able to lobby government and kind of 717 00:43:09,670 --> 00:43:14,830 help shepherd some of the people that are going to be hurt with 718 00:43:15,370 --> 00:43:19,870 with these pain points is why so a lot of the projecting that we 719 00:43:19,870 --> 00:43:23,950 can do a lot of the planning that we can do squarely lens in 720 00:43:23,950 --> 00:43:31,900 the the understanding that our relationship all converge with 721 00:43:31,900 --> 00:43:35,740 this CLA type of middle ground. 722 00:43:41,789 --> 00:43:42,989 Amir Tajkariml: Yeah, what Clinton said. 723 00:43:47,219 --> 00:43:53,399 James R: Keep muting myself there. So we're at 10. Well, we 724 00:43:53,399 --> 00:43:55,589 got about 14 more minutes left. So I just want to encourage 725 00:43:55,589 --> 00:43:58,469 anybody if they've had questions, we were like I said, 726 00:43:58,469 --> 00:44:01,589 we're going to leave the last 15 minutes for questions to the 727 00:44:01,589 --> 00:44:05,579 end. But again, we're all obviously wanting to encourage 728 00:44:05,579 --> 00:44:09,059 people to ask questions throughout. But just given that 729 00:44:09,089 --> 00:44:11,759 we're sort of nearing the end, if you do have any questions, do 730 00:44:11,759 --> 00:44:15,479 encourage you just to go in the q&a box or type them in, and our 731 00:44:15,479 --> 00:44:20,549 panelists will certainly be happy to inter entertain those. 732 00:44:25,499 --> 00:44:35,819 So I guess maybe just moving on to the next topic. Is just in 733 00:44:35,849 --> 00:44:38,759 regards to the Yeah, the government us, you know, 734 00:44:38,759 --> 00:44:46,139 stimulus programs and the, you know, withdrawal of that. And 735 00:44:46,169 --> 00:44:48,749 how do you think what do you think is going to be the biggest 736 00:44:48,749 --> 00:44:52,979 factor and biggest risk to our respective firms or firms or 737 00:44:52,979 --> 00:44:57,299 businesses as those you know, government payments, you know, 738 00:44:57,299 --> 00:45:00,989 sort of do come to a halt. Obvious See, when we're dealing 739 00:45:00,989 --> 00:45:03,269 with bankruptcies, you know, there's a process there that's 740 00:45:03,269 --> 00:45:07,649 sort of out of our hands. But how is it that we can best sort 741 00:45:07,649 --> 00:45:14,729 of manage that as the inevitable government funding does come to 742 00:45:14,759 --> 00:45:15,329 a halt? 743 00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:20,640 Bryan Szemenyei: Yeah, is so I think as that government program 744 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:22,260 is going to come to a halt, there's going to be sort of some 745 00:45:22,260 --> 00:45:27,150 specific consumer effects. Naturally, for those people who 746 00:45:27,150 --> 00:45:30,330 are on certain programs who are not able to transition to EI, 747 00:45:30,330 --> 00:45:34,110 they'll find a pretty material drop in their, in their top line 748 00:45:34,110 --> 00:45:37,560 income, that they've got available to them. And sort of 749 00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:39,630 concurrently that a little not a lot of people are sort of 750 00:45:39,630 --> 00:45:42,990 noticing as well. OSFI right now is changing the regulations 751 00:45:42,990 --> 00:45:45,720 around how it recognizes mortgage deferrals, which is 752 00:45:45,720 --> 00:45:49,590 going to make it much more difficult for for the banks in 753 00:45:49,590 --> 00:45:52,590 order to continue their their mortgage deferral programs, and 754 00:45:52,590 --> 00:45:55,980 they're going to start pushing to get those those payments back 755 00:45:55,980 --> 00:45:58,980 up to good standing. So as a result of that, you're going to 756 00:45:58,980 --> 00:46:02,400 see a very material top line drop in people's income and a 757 00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:06,210 pretty material increase in people's non discretionary 758 00:46:06,210 --> 00:46:10,410 spending. So those items are going to create quite a bit of 759 00:46:10,410 --> 00:46:15,930 squeeze and a crunch on free cash flow available for for debt 760 00:46:15,930 --> 00:46:19,050 retirement or savings. And as much as people have been 761 00:46:19,050 --> 00:46:22,230 satisfying their debts during this period of time, that will 762 00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:26,640 affect recovery rates, and it will affect delinquency rates as 763 00:46:26,670 --> 00:46:29,580 people can't satisfy minimum payments on their debt. So that 764 00:46:29,580 --> 00:46:33,150 is what will happen in the fall. Right. The question then is how 765 00:46:33,150 --> 00:46:35,970 do you sort of prepare, you know, for that exercise, and and 766 00:46:35,970 --> 00:46:38,580 what can you do in order to try and to try and satisfy it? I 767 00:46:38,580 --> 00:46:41,040 think that's kind of what we've been trying to talk about today. 768 00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:43,440 And but establishing those relationships early and get 769 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:48,630 those those sorts of pieces in place. You know, ultimately, for 770 00:46:48,630 --> 00:46:51,360 those consumers, though, they're going to, they're going to stop 771 00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:54,540 paying. And I think people need to establish a, you know, as 772 00:46:54,540 --> 00:46:57,540 we've started from the beginning of relationship now, in order to 773 00:46:57,570 --> 00:47:02,040 maintain some degree of consistency on a post on a sort 774 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,720 of a post stimulus basis. Now, the other open question here is 775 00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:08,820 whether or not there will be a second round of stimulus 776 00:47:08,820 --> 00:47:11,400 programs that are being put in place. I think one thing I've 777 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,610 learned through this exercise is don't fight the Fed in Canadian 778 00:47:14,610 --> 00:47:17,640 version of it. So don't fight the BOC, if you want to call it 779 00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:21,720 that. So wait and see whether or not there is a another program 780 00:47:21,720 --> 00:47:24,510 that is run out. But if that does happen, then we'll find 781 00:47:24,510 --> 00:47:26,940 this will just keep pushing, you know these items out farther and 782 00:47:26,940 --> 00:47:30,870 farther. Specific as it relates to insolvencies. insolvencies, 783 00:47:30,870 --> 00:47:33,840 as you mentioned, James, those are a difficult one in order to 784 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:37,470 prevent the actual event from occurring. Because by the time 785 00:47:37,470 --> 00:47:39,630 you receive an insolvency, notice the consumer has already 786 00:47:39,630 --> 00:47:42,420 walked into a trustees office, they filled out an insolvency 787 00:47:42,420 --> 00:47:46,080 form, they've gone through the financial disclosures, and 788 00:47:46,110 --> 00:47:49,380 they've submitted the file, they've already jumped the sort 789 00:47:49,380 --> 00:47:52,320 of emotional shark if you will, and they're filing that process. 790 00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:55,170 So there's very little mitigation you can do to the 791 00:47:55,170 --> 00:47:58,980 event itself. What you can do is evaluate the insolvencies that 792 00:47:58,980 --> 00:48:01,800 are coming through, they're not written in stone that the 793 00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:04,980 information that is presented is the information that you must 794 00:48:04,980 --> 00:48:08,520 accept. There are excuse me, challenge options, there are 795 00:48:09,090 --> 00:48:11,880 sort of different tactics you can take with the trustees in 796 00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:14,970 order to try and increase the quality of the insolvency that 797 00:48:14,970 --> 00:48:19,050 is coming. Those have very strict guidelines around them. 798 00:48:19,050 --> 00:48:21,750 And you know, we could spend a whole session on that as well. 799 00:48:21,750 --> 00:48:24,690 But don't ignore that part of your book, because it does 800 00:48:24,690 --> 00:48:26,250 require some attention as well. 801 00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:32,220 Clinton Hosannah: I think that part of this, too, is keeping an 802 00:48:32,220 --> 00:48:37,110 eye on what's going to happening politically. I mean, if Erin 803 00:48:37,110 --> 00:48:42,870 O'Toole triggers a an election after Troodos throne speech, and 804 00:48:43,590 --> 00:48:46,890 depending on what happens after that, if we're in a situation 805 00:48:46,890 --> 00:48:49,350 with majority Liberal government, federal Liberal 806 00:48:49,350 --> 00:48:54,660 government or a majority or minority, new, more right 807 00:48:54,660 --> 00:49:01,230 leaning federal government, and we can rest assured that how the 808 00:49:01,230 --> 00:49:03,990 stimulus potential stimulus package if there is a second 809 00:49:03,990 --> 00:49:10,950 wave is rolled out, definitely affect what we can do. But 810 00:49:10,980 --> 00:49:15,600 paying attention to it on on that level also gives us an 811 00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:19,080 opportunity to be ready again, in the event that there isn't, I 812 00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:22,200 mean, you know, Canada's doing very well, we obviously should 813 00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:25,830 be doing better, like lower numbers in terms of cases of 814 00:49:25,830 --> 00:49:28,860 people getting COVID, but it's still pretty low. And I think 815 00:49:28,860 --> 00:49:33,300 that if there isn't a second wave, we know for a fact that 816 00:49:33,300 --> 00:49:35,430 they're not going to want to pull out money instead, it'd be 817 00:49:35,430 --> 00:49:40,320 more of an aggressive way to lower deficit. And with that 818 00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:42,360 being the case fiscal responsibility would be the 819 00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:48,360 message. And as long as that message is being communicated, 820 00:49:48,390 --> 00:49:54,180 whether it's through tech, in in, in what we do, AI or 821 00:49:54,180 --> 00:49:59,580 otherwise, that's how we can make sure to, to mitigate what 822 00:49:59,580 --> 00:50:01,890 can become Other hand collections, but at the end of 823 00:50:01,890 --> 00:50:05,160 the day, there should be a lot more business coming in and 824 00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:07,920 hopefully that it helps on that end to in terms of acquisition. 825 00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:17,310 James Rose: Or question here, from Eric, options, benefits 826 00:50:17,310 --> 00:50:21,420 last drawbacks of third party slaps external collections or 827 00:50:21,420 --> 00:50:24,900 credit counseling for first notice and or unresponsive 828 00:50:24,900 --> 00:50:28,260 clients, good extending an offer for assistance be more 829 00:50:28,260 --> 00:50:28,770 effective. 830 00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:36,810 Bryan Szemenyei: I'm not going to begin, but I'll turn it over 831 00:50:36,810 --> 00:50:42,540 to others who always have an opinion. You know, if somebody 832 00:50:42,540 --> 00:50:45,240 else feel free to jump in, I think there's different kinds of 833 00:50:45,240 --> 00:50:46,830 categories that you've kind of broken out there. If I 834 00:50:46,830 --> 00:50:50,430 understand the question, it's what for very early stage 835 00:50:50,430 --> 00:50:52,980 delinquency, should I be internalizing that that 836 00:50:52,980 --> 00:50:55,800 activity? Or should I be partnering with a third party 837 00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:58,950 collection agency, or a credit counselor in order to send a 838 00:50:58,950 --> 00:51:02,550 notice from a third party, will that generate a better response 839 00:51:02,580 --> 00:51:06,000 than it would if I just send another notice from the company 840 00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:09,510 that I already have? I think to some degree, that depends on the 841 00:51:09,510 --> 00:51:11,760 hyper personalization that we kind of talked to at the 842 00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:14,250 beginning, it depends on the customer. And that if you 843 00:51:14,250 --> 00:51:17,550 already have a positive relationship with that customer, 844 00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:21,510 then you should be able to generate a better response than 845 00:51:21,690 --> 00:51:25,440 a third party agency being kind of dropped in front of them. I'd 846 00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:29,400 also caution that a third party agency can sometimes create a 847 00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:32,100 little bit of a defensive posture from a consumers 848 00:51:32,100 --> 00:51:35,970 perspective, and that they, they suddenly feel like they can't 849 00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,240 call out and reach out to you because they're, they're being 850 00:51:39,270 --> 00:51:41,700 reached out by a collection agency, it's not always the 851 00:51:41,700 --> 00:51:45,030 case. But sometimes it can have that sort of effect with people. 852 00:51:45,570 --> 00:51:47,700 So you've got to be a little bit cautious, it can be a little bit 853 00:51:47,700 --> 00:51:53,850 expensive, but it is a effective means in order to induce an 854 00:51:53,850 --> 00:51:57,240 activity from a consumer who you haven't been able to develop an 855 00:51:57,240 --> 00:52:00,540 effective relationship with or who was already in a defensive 856 00:52:00,540 --> 00:52:04,290 posture, you know, you're better to kind of push that 857 00:52:04,290 --> 00:52:07,620 relationship and let them be the bad guy than it is to let you be 858 00:52:07,620 --> 00:52:10,830 the bad guy. So it kind of depends on that. As it relates 859 00:52:10,830 --> 00:52:13,080 to the credit counseling industry, it is important to 860 00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:14,970 break the credit counseling industry into its kind of 861 00:52:14,970 --> 00:52:18,600 constituent pieces. There are for profit credit counselors and 862 00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:21,690 their non for profit credit credit counselors, the non for 863 00:52:21,690 --> 00:52:26,070 profit credit counselors are a softer approach to the consumer. 864 00:52:26,070 --> 00:52:29,070 And they don't cost the consumer as much money, they cost the 865 00:52:29,070 --> 00:52:33,540 creditor money. But it is a more sort of accepted version, I 866 00:52:33,540 --> 00:52:38,490 would say of credit counseling for the consumer space, the for 867 00:52:38,490 --> 00:52:41,610 profit credit counselors will actually charge the consumer 868 00:52:41,610 --> 00:52:44,820 money. And I don't want to sort of paint them all with a single 869 00:52:44,820 --> 00:52:48,330 brush, but they sort of to help the consumer dodge their debts. 870 00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:51,690 So it's a different type of process than it is somebody 871 00:52:51,690 --> 00:52:54,540 who's actually helping them resolve their debts. And I would 872 00:52:54,540 --> 00:52:57,810 say make sure that if you're if you're going down that path, 873 00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,120 even if it is a for profit, make sure it's the right type of for 874 00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:03,660 profit. And it's not just kicking off a relationship to 875 00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:06,780 another party whose primary job is going to be to wrestle that 876 00:53:06,780 --> 00:53:07,770 relationship from you. 877 00:53:07,770 --> 00:53:13,720 Amir Tajkariml: Yeah I knew that, it might be what we see 878 00:53:13,720 --> 00:53:18,010 with our clients is that if in early delinquency, you want to 879 00:53:18,010 --> 00:53:20,980 go to third party what that does is one yes, absolutely. Like 880 00:53:20,980 --> 00:53:24,490 Brian said, it's expensive. But we also noticed that it kind of 881 00:53:25,060 --> 00:53:27,730 this we work with telcos, we work with utilities, we work 882 00:53:27,730 --> 00:53:30,130 with banks, and they told us listen, we want to avoid going 883 00:53:30,130 --> 00:53:33,310 to collection is third party is good. I'm not I'm not bashing 884 00:53:33,310 --> 00:53:36,040 anyone. But I'm just saying, we want to avoid getting going to 885 00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:38,290 collections at the beginning, because we noticed as soon as 886 00:53:38,290 --> 00:53:41,080 you go to collections, it kind of breaks that relationship 887 00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:45,610 between us and the customer. And what it also does is that that 888 00:53:45,610 --> 00:53:50,470 collect third party doesn't necessarily have your brand, as 889 00:53:50,500 --> 00:53:53,890 a at heart in terms of that, that's our value proposition. 890 00:53:53,890 --> 00:53:57,130 They're working with multiple brands. So it may have an effect 891 00:53:57,130 --> 00:53:59,530 on your brand, because the strategies may be a little bit, 892 00:53:59,860 --> 00:54:03,790 a little bit more tough and right, rightfully so. But just 893 00:54:03,790 --> 00:54:06,700 in terms of early collection. That's why one of the we've 894 00:54:06,700 --> 00:54:09,730 noticed these days. And now especially with all the social 895 00:54:09,730 --> 00:54:13,000 media out there, as soon as you see a bad review, it can affect 896 00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:17,290 the whole, the whole the whole pie. So you want to be as 897 00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:23,500 flexible and as keep as internal as possible. Because it can, it 898 00:54:23,500 --> 00:54:26,260 can break the relationship if you go to third party a bit too 899 00:54:26,260 --> 00:54:31,510 soon. What we've noticed the past 50 years, six to seven 900 00:54:31,510 --> 00:54:36,040 years collection has always been a little bit on the on the rigid 901 00:54:36,040 --> 00:54:41,230 side. And nowadays flexibility is key. You need to keep that as 902 00:54:41,230 --> 00:54:44,410 internal as possible. And we've seen the results are better when 903 00:54:44,410 --> 00:54:47,470 you try internally to handle that situation with the 904 00:54:47,470 --> 00:54:50,200 customer. And then ultimately if it doesn't work, we're like you 905 00:54:50,200 --> 00:54:53,770 know, you've tried your your different scenarios, and then 906 00:54:53,770 --> 00:54:56,020 you can give it up to a third party anyways, in our 907 00:54:56,020 --> 00:54:58,840 experience, we've noticed that internalizing it as much as 908 00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:02,470 possible at the earliest at early stage makes a difference. 909 00:55:04,150 --> 00:55:06,550 Because brands right now like big brands, Rogers, these, 910 00:55:07,030 --> 00:55:11,410 they're very, they're very worried that their brand may may 911 00:55:11,410 --> 00:55:15,340 be affected, right, it's very important to keep that perfect 912 00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:19,660 reputation. And off very often has happened. And we have data 913 00:55:19,660 --> 00:55:21,760 to show it. I mean, we're not going to hide themselves. It's 914 00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:24,280 that when it goes very often, when it good went to collection 915 00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:28,030 agency, it became a little bit rough. So that's that's the 916 00:55:28,030 --> 00:55:32,050 thing, but it's all changing. It's all improving. And with 917 00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:35,440 those my comments regarding early collections, or lead 918 00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:35,950 delinquency. 919 00:55:39,300 --> 00:55:42,204 James Rose: Right,1 we have, maybe time for one more 920 00:55:42,277 --> 00:55:46,416 question. So just play if anybody has one. But I guess in 921 00:55:46,489 --> 00:55:51,064 the meantime, I'm going to hand it back to Tom here. But I just 922 00:55:51,136 --> 00:55:55,639 saw just want to thank the panel for sharing your insights and 923 00:55:55,711 --> 00:55:59,560 with us and your, your, your tips, and how to build a 924 00:55:59,633 --> 00:56:02,755 maintaining resilient collections practice, 925 00:56:02,828 --> 00:56:07,258 particularly within these times of uncertainty. But you know, 926 00:56:07,330 --> 00:56:11,397 one of the things that I got out of it, though, as well, 927 00:56:11,470 --> 00:56:16,045 especially we're talking about the beginning, you know, certain 928 00:56:16,117 --> 00:56:20,765 strategies that can be employed, or I guess, kind of things that 929 00:56:20,838 --> 00:56:25,413 we should be doing anyway. And if we're constantly doing those, 930 00:56:25,485 --> 00:56:28,971 looking back at what's effective, and what's not 931 00:56:29,044 --> 00:56:33,183 effective, that'll certainly help by us, you know, in the 932 00:56:33,255 --> 00:56:37,395 future, because things are always dynamic and changing. I 933 00:56:37,467 --> 00:56:42,042 guess this is just more of one of a degree. So yes, I just want 934 00:56:42,115 --> 00:56:46,617 to thank Amir and Nathan, Brian, and Ben, for joining us today 935 00:56:46,690 --> 00:56:50,757 and having this opportunity, also to moderate and it was 936 00:56:50,829 --> 00:56:55,114 great meeting you virtually as well. And yeah, thank you to 937 00:56:55,186 --> 00:56:59,761 everybody who participated and throughout the country, and I'll 938 00:56:59,834 --> 00:57:01,650 just hand it back to Tal. 939 00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:06,030 Tal Schwartz: Thanks so much, James. And thank you, everyone, 940 00:57:06,030 --> 00:57:11,400 for a really interesting discussion. We, like I mentioned 941 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:14,310 at the beginning, we're going to be circulating the recording to 942 00:57:14,310 --> 00:57:16,650 everyone that registered, so don't worry if you miss a little 943 00:57:16,650 --> 00:57:20,430 bit of it. And, you know, we'd love to have you back. We're 944 00:57:20,430 --> 00:57:23,760 running these webinars on different topics and lending and 945 00:57:23,760 --> 00:57:28,290 fintech almost every month. So if you want to participate, if 946 00:57:28,290 --> 00:57:31,950 you have a topic that you'd really like us to cover, or if 947 00:57:31,950 --> 00:57:35,460 you just want to be more involved in the Kenyan lenders 948 00:57:35,460 --> 00:57:40,350 Association, please reach out at myself or, or follow us on 949 00:57:40,350 --> 00:57:46,290 LinkedIn. Again, thank you so much to Lexa up for sponsoring 950 00:57:46,290 --> 00:57:51,630 this, this webinar. And we'll be sharing laptops contact 951 00:57:51,630 --> 00:57:56,400 information as well in when we share the recording. So if I Oh, 952 00:57:56,400 --> 00:58:00,420 thank you, everyone so much for joining us across the country. 953 00:58:00,690 --> 00:58:02,580 And I will see you all very, very soon. 954 00:58:03,420 --> 00:58:05,370 Unknown: Thank you. Appreciate you guys.