How can lenders measure trust?

They say no one ever got fired for buying IBM, but global brand ubiquity is of little relevance in the specialist field of lending technology and regulated loan servicing. As Lenvi Sales Director, Ben Turner demonstrates buyers seeking to invest in this sector require partners with the qualities that are critical to building trust. 

If you’re a large financial organisation diversifying into lending, it’s a significant investment. And apart from the large monetary costs of establishing reliable technology and scalable operations, it’s an investment in your brand that comes with the risk of reputational damage should anything go wrong.

Clearly, choosing a partner that you can trust completely is critical. You need to know you can rely on them every step of the way, drawing on their expertise, experience and commitment to meet every deliverable, head off technical and regulatory challenges, and surpass the expectations of stakeholders that may have different priorities within your organisation.

Yet that’s where some buyers can also lose their focus. There’s an old saying that “no one ever gets fired for buying IBM”, and there can be a temptation to confuse brand ubiquity with ‘reliability’ or ‘low risk’. The reality in the specialist field of lending technology and regulated loan servicing is very different. The biggest multi-national corporations pitching in this sector have one thing in common – they offer generic products that vary little from their offerings in other markets. And far from presenting a ‘safe bet’, this lack of direct market expertise reduces reliability and exacerbates risk.

So how can buyers wishing to invest in the lending sector measure trust? And what qualities should they identify in an outsourced partner to ensure that their trust and investment is justified?

Deep sector knowledge

Lending is a complex and highly regulated field. While other brands have only entered the sector recently, we’ve been specialising in lending technology and services for 35 years. That means we have long-tenured staff with unparalleled knowledge who are passionate about what we do, and who add considerable value in helping our clients navigate the sector’s unique regulatory challenges. Indeed within lending, we’re a leading presence with over £23bn of assets under management within our contact centres and over £100bn managed through our technology platforms. Unlike some large outsourcing outfits, we remain focused solely on what we know best – compliant, flexible and scalable lending solutions.

Horizon scanning

We have a dedicated team focused not just on today’s regulatory landscape, but on how the regulatory environment is evolving. And as well as working closely with our clients to build the technology and deliver the services they need, there is a very proactive consultative side to what we do. Something we’ve deployed with great success over recent years through our early engagement in key regulatory changes such as Consumer Duty Our commitment to innovation helps to keep our clients a step ahead of their competition and removes pain from new product launches. We undertake regular market research to ensure a deep understanding of customer demands and  we’ll be publishing our next Lending Report a little later this year, providing an in-depth analysis of the overall UK lending sector, with its associated challenges and opportunities.

Genuine flexibility

We pride ourselves on our flexibility, and our agility at making changes as and when our clients change their propositions. Over the years, we have added significant capabilities onto our lending platform,  allowing clients to continue to benefit from the latest technological innovations whilst preserving the compliance and resilience at the core of lending technology. We certainly don’t ‘do’ generic – we’re responsive, proactive and we build in scalability to ensure that the technology doesn’t hold you back.

White label expertise

We understand the importance of protecting clients’ brands in the modern age. Clients need partners who are not only happy to work on a ‘white label’ basis but are experienced at making it work in a seamless manner. With our white label clients we build solutions that act as an extension of clients’ internal operations, rather than dictate process and procedure in a one size fits all approach. We are part of one team, embracing clients’ branding, culture and tone of voice. 

So if your lending ambitions stretch beyond the IBM-fixated buyer fearful of getting the sack, these are just four of the areas that I recommend measuring your potential technology partners against. And if you’d like to find out more, please do get in touch.