Making sure your operations are compliant across regions, industries, and a growing customer base can be a challenge. With legacy software, achieving this with inflexible systems becomes an even bigger challenge.
This is where configurability comes in. You need a dynamic and adaptable platform that is configurable and easily implements compliance changes at a moment's notice. Not only does this greatly minimize risk, but it saves a lot of time for your team.
In this article, we explore the need for adaptability to be compliant with modern regulations. Then we highlight the importance of configurability, and how a modern platform can provide peace of mind with your operations.
Modern regulations can be subjective
Modern regulatory measures in the financial sector are in-place primarily to protect customers at each step of their collections journey. But this journey varies widely from customer to customer, with different experiences, preferences and financial situations. As a result, many regulations have a level of subjectivity to their requirements: rather than simply stating what businesses can and can’t do, they often set guidelines on best practices that they can apply to their own operations.
A key example of this is with the UK’s Consumer Duty. The FCA established a set of rules that financial firms are required to follow, with one of them being the beneficial outcomes rule. This requires businesses to make sure that they are providing their customers with outcomes that benefit them. But the interpretation of what benefits a customer can often vary between areas, regions and industries. As a result, businesses need to distinguish what a beneficial outcome is for each of their customers before they can deliver it.
Now, there are still regulations like the FDCPA that have strict and simple requirements, such as the 7-in-7 rule of Regulation F: you can’t contact a customer more than 7 times within 7 days. Nevertheless, many modern regulations require you to be dynamic and adaptable in your operations so you can operate compliantly between regions, areas and a growing customer base.
How configurability provides a dynamic approach to compliance
Configurability goes hand-in-hand with modern compliance by providing the adaptability required to manage customers across different regions and industries. Having the ability to configure workflows in real-time means you can tailor the customer experience on a personal level. It also allows you to easily configure your operations in line with regulation amendments and recommendations from auditors. With legacy software, this would have to be done manually from scratch every time a change is required, highlighting the need for configurability.
Say you have a customer who has entered delinquency for the first time with a small outstanding balance. A beneficial outcome for them will probably be a simple repayment process through a self-service portal. But for a long-standing delinquent customer with a considerable balance, they require a direct approach with a long-term repayment plan to have a beneficial experience.
The features of a configurable collections platform
Configurability from modern platforms gives you the adaptability to support your customers in a compliant fashion without demanding hours and hours of work from your team.
- Configurable workflows - Adjust treatment paths and workflows in real-time at a moment’s notice. Whether there are legislation changes or an auditor has recommended adjustments, you can stay compliant without needing to overhaul your systems each time.
- AI-tools and automation - Configurable platforms support AI-tools that can automate compliance checks with your workflows, saving additional time for your team and making compliance simpler.
- Easy to use - Configurable platforms place usability as a priority. You don’t need a team of specialists just to adjust workflows, any member of your team can take advantage of configurability, saving you time and resources.
Be compliant through configurability with C&R Software
Modern compliance in the financial industry has changed from a simple “do this” and “don’t do this.” Now, you need to support your customers in a way that follows guidelines from different regional and international regulatory measures. And with legacy software, it’s impossible to manage these guidelines across your entire customer base.
At C&R Software, our industry leading Debt Manager provides complete configurability from beginning to end of the customer collections journey. You can configure your workflows and tailor your treatment paths to be compliant between areas, regions and industries. And the best part is that it saves valuable time for your team to focus on supporting customers to financial health.
To find out more about Debt Manager and how its configurable features can help you ensure compliance, contact a member of our team today.
