Financial Services

In 2020, we started cooperation with one of the largest Polish banks (a part of the Global Bank) to build a solution for restructuring customers’ debts. The application was ready to be delivered to users in less than a year. Here’s how the project was developed.

Business need

The Client approached us with an urgent request. They needed to set up a debt management system for customers who use different bank’s products and are behind their payment schedule. Overdue debt is a problem for both the Bank and its customers, so our Client was aware that the restructuring will benefit both sides as it corresponds with the Bank’s mission to help their customers.

Market research shows that a simple solution, such as an option to pay from a different bank account or a month of payment holidays, can increase the debt repayment ratio. However, up until now, helping customers with overdue debt was done solely by customer advisors, so the entire process had been managed manually by the Bank representatives. Moreover, to benefit from Bank’s offer, customers needed to visit its branch – even twice! (the conclusion of the contract required application and annexe preparation)

Also, due to the pandemic situation and the reduced staff in Bank branches, there was a growing need to make the process more efficient and immune to similar crises in the future.

Solution description

The product is an online self-service platform aimed at debt restructuring. It is a place where a user can manage their debts. Depending on a particular debtor and their record history, there are options to submit an application to have their instalments postponed or change the payment schedule.

Those processes can be automated or semi-automated depending on an individual case. Either way, there’s always a possibility to sign an annexe or agreement online. It’s also possible to pay an overdue debt using another payment (a different account or a card) through an integrated payment provider.

Users can also request contact regarding a particular product using an active form. This really helps Bank’s representatives handle such requests, as the form collects data at an early stage of the process.

The most important element of this project was integrating our solution with an online banking platform and with many bank services delivering data across other systems in the Bank. Thanks to the integrations, a customer stays within the same system and can use restructuring options as online banking features without leaving the Bank’s website. Moreover, a user is not obligated to do additional registration or logging. Such an approach increases a user’s sense of security and they are more willing to use the Bank offer. This also helps Bank’s representatives to guide users through the whole process without additional authorisation of a user’s identity.

Our solution meets all the accessibility standards and is built using responsive web design for better usability. Since many people use the mobile banking app (mobile devices are approx. 70% of total use) our solution is also integrated with it, allowing users to benefit from the Bank’s offer anywhere.

Our responsibility

The project started in the summer of 2020 with the UX/UI design process based on the Bank’s guidelines. The first stage of the development was business process modelling, project set-up and tools adaptation. Although the CI/CD and the start environment were delivered to us by the bank, we developed the product’s architecture in a way that would work best in the microservices ecosystem. In the project, we benefited from common backend and frontend technologies and products already existing on the market, such as a workflow engine.

Conclusion

This debt management solution project was a great example of close cooperation with the Client, which is the key to success from our perspective. Day-to-day work in a good atmosphere with ownership from our side and trust from the client’s side resulted in a solution that really helps the Bank take care of their customers.

The solution enabled the Bank to carry out the entire restructuring process without even a single visit to the branch. It resulted (even at this stage of the product’s life) in approx. one fourth of the restructuring decisions being taken online. The time needed to complete the entire process was shortened from about 2 weeks to even 7 minutes (the option to repay overdue debt takes even less time).

According to the Bank’s feedback survey, the solution has a very high rate of 4.5 stars. The users assess their experience with the portal as good and are happy to use it.

If you want to see how debt management and collection software works in practice, check out DebtPro, a fully-customisable platform created by and for financial experts.  See more details and book a free demo.