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.