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A recent survey of government benefit agencies shows an increased need for fraud detection technology to prevent eligibility fraud. Only 26 percent of respondents currently use fraud detection technology, and 57 percent cite false income reporting as the leading cause of fraud. Insufficient resources and difficulty integrating multiple data sources were the greatest challenges in preventing eligibility fraud. View the infographic to learn how state and local government leaders weigh in. Source: Study shows growing need to validate benefit determinations

The desire to return to portfolio growth is a clear trend in mature credit markets, such as the US and Canada. Historically, credit unions and banks have driven portfolio growth with aggressive out-bound marketing offers designed to attract new customers and members through loan acquisitions. These offers were typically aligned to a particular product with no strategy alignment between multiple divisions within the organization. Further, when existing customers submitted a new request for credit, they were treated the same as incoming new customers with no reference to the overall value of the existing relationship. Today, however, financial institutions are looking to create more value from existing customer relationships to drive sustained portfolio growth by increasing customer retention, loyalty and wallet share. Let’s consider this idea further. By identifying the needs of existing customers and matching them to individual credit risk and affordability, effective cross-sell strategies that link the needs of the individual to risk and affordability can ensure that portfolio growth can be achieved while simultaneously increasing customer satisfaction and promoting loyalty. The need to optimize customer touch-points and provide the best possible customer experience is paramount to future performance, as measured by market share and long-term customer profitability. By also responding rapidly to changing customer credit needs, you can further build trust, increase wallet share and profitably grow your loan portfolios. In the simplest sense, the more of your products a customer uses, the less likely the customer is to leave you for the competition. With these objectives in mind, financial organizations are turning towards the practice of setting holistic, customer-level credit lending parameters. These parameters often referred to as umbrella, or customer lending, limits. The challenges Although the benefits for enhancing existing relationships are clear, there are a number of challenges that bear to mind some important questions to consider: · How do you balance the competing objectives of portfolio loan growth while managing future losses? · How do you know how much your customer can afford? · How do you ensure that customers have access to the products they need when they need them · What is the appropriate communication method to position the offer? Few credit unions or banks have lending strategies that differentiate between new and existing customers. In the most cases, new credit requests are processed identically for both customer groups. The problem with this approach is that it fails to capture and use the power of existing customer data, which will inevitably lead to suboptimal decisions. Similarly, financial institutions frequently provide inconsistent lending messages to their clients. The following scenarios can potentially arise when institutions fail to look across all relationships to support their core lending and collections processes: 1. Customer is refused for additional credit on the facility of their choice, whilst simultaneously offered an increase in their credit line on another. 2. Customer is extended credit on a new facility whilst being seriously delinquent on another. 3. Customer receives marketing solicitation for three different products from the same institution, in the same week, through three different channels. Essentials for customer lending limits and successful cross-selling By evaluating existing customers on a periodic (monthly) basis, financial institutions can assess holistically the customer’s existing exposure, risk and affordability. By setting customer level lending limits in accordance with these parameters, core lending processes can be rendered more efficient, with superior results and enhanced customer satisfaction. This approach can be extended to consider a fast-track application process for existing relationships with high value, low risk customers. Traditionally, business processes have not identified loan applications from such individuals to provide preferential treatment. The core fundamentals of the approach necessary for the setting of holistic customer lending (umbrella) limits include: · The accurate evaluation of credit and default risk · The calculation of additional lending capacity and affordability · Appropriate product offerings for cross-sell · Operational deployment Follow my blog series over the next few months as we explore the essentials for customer lending limits and successful cross-selling.

There are two core fundamentals of evaluating loan loss performance to consider when generating organic portfolio growth through the setting of customer lending limits. Neither of which can be discussed without first considering what defines a “customer.” Definition of a customer The approach used to define a customer is critical for successful customer management and is directly correlated to how joint accounts are managed. Definitions may vary by how joint accounts are allocated and used in risk evaluation. It is important to acknowledge: Legal restrictions for data usage related to joint account holders throughout the relationship Impact on predictive model performance and reporting where there are two financially linked individuals with differently assigned exposures Complexities of multiple relationships with customers within the same household – consumer and small business Typical customer definitions used by financial services organizations: Checking account holders: This definition groups together accounts that are “fed” by the same checking account. If an individual holds two checking accounts, then she will be treated as two different and unique customers. Physical persons: Joint accounts allocated to each individual. If Mr. Jones has sole accounts and holds joint accounts with Ms. Smith who also has sole accounts, the joint accounts would be allocated to both Mr. Jones and Ms. Smith. Consistent entities: If Mr Jones has sole accounts and holds joint accounts with Ms. Smith who also has sole accounts, then 3 “customers” are defined: Jones, Jones & Smith, Smith. Financially-linked individuals: Whereas consistent entities are considered three separate customers, financially-linked individuals would be considered one customer: “Mr. Jones & Ms. Smith”. When multiple and complex relationships exist, taking a pragmatic approach to define your customers as financially-linked will lead to a better evaluation of predicted loan performance. Evaluation of credit and default risk Most financial institutions calculate a loan default probability on a periodic basis (monthly) for existing loans, in the format of either a custom behavior score or a generic risk score, supplied by a credit bureau. For new loan requests, financial institutions often calculate an application risk score, sometimes used in conjunction with a credit bureau score, often in a matrix-based decision. This approach is challenging for new credit requests where the presence and nature of the existing relationship is not factored into the decision. In most cases, customers with existing relationships are treated in an identical manner to those new applicants with no relationship – the power and value of the organization’s internal data goes overlooked whereby customer satisfaction and profits suffer as a result. One way to overcome this challenge is to use a Strength of Relationship (SOR) indicator. Strength of Relationship (SOR) indicator The Strength of Relationship (SOR) indicator is a single-digit value used to define the nature of the relationship of the customer with financial institution. Traditional approaches for the assignment of a SOR are based upon the following factors Existence of a primary banking relationship (salary deposits) Number of transactional products held (DDA, credit cards) Volume of transactions Number of loan products held Length of time with bank The SOR has a critical role in the calculation of customer level risk grades and strategies and is used to point us to the data that will be the most predictive for each customer. Typically the stronger the relationship, the more we know about our customer, and the more robust will be predictive models of consumer behavior. The more information we have on our customer, the more our models will lean towards internal data as the primary source. For weaker relationships, internal data may not be robust enough alone to be used to calculate customer level limits and there will be a greater dependency to augment internal data with external third party data (credit bureau attributes.) As such, the SOR can be used as a tool to select the type and frequency of external data purchase. Customer Risk Grade (CRG) A customer-level risk grade or behavior score is a periodic (monthly) statistical assessment of the default risk of an existing customer. This probability uses the assumption that past performance is the best possible indicator of future performance. The predictive model is calibrated to provide the probability (or odds) that an individual will incur a “default” on one or more of their accounts. The customer risk grade requires a common definition of a customer across the enterprise. This is required to establish a methodology for treating joint accounts. A unique customer reference number is assigned to those customers defined as “financially-linked individuals”. Account behavior is aggregated on a monthly basis and this information is subsequently combined with information from savings accounts and third party sources to formulate our customer view. Using historical customer information, the behavior score can accurately differentiate between good and bad credit risk individuals. The behavior score is often translated into a Customer Risk Grade (CRG). The purpose of the CRG is to simplify the behavior score for operational purposes making it easier for noncredit/ risk individuals to interpret a grade more easily than a mathematical probability. Different methods for evaluating credit risk will yield different results and an important aspect in the setting of customer exposure thresholds is the ability to perform analytical tests of different strategies in a controlled environment. In my next post, I’ll dive deeper into adaptive control, champion challenger techniques and strategy design fundamentals. Related content: White paper: Improving decisions across the Customer Life Cycle
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