XRS COLLECTOR CASE STUDY

Leeds Credit Union reduces credit control resources by 40% while engaging and retaining members

PROJECT DETAILS

KEY RESULTS

BACKGROUND

Leeds City Credit Union is one of the largest financial cooperatives in the UK with 37,000 members. They provide straightforward, affordable financial services. As a mutual there are no shareholders so it is owned by its members and always has the interests of the members at the heart of everything it does.

CHALLENGES

Leeds wished to address high levels of arrears, writes offs, legal referrals and overall poor credit control results. Users and managers felt the core system had limited credit control functionality which was hindering their efforts. Too much time was being spent on manual tasks and working from static lists. These were quickly outdated and prone to errors and omissions. It was also difficult for managers to assess overall credit control performance. While conscious of the Credit Union’s community ethos and ethical collections responsibilities, these issues were preventing efficient and effective credit control. This resulted in a culture of non-payment among some members who saw the Credit Union as a soft touch.

“The credit control team is extremely pleased with the user-friendliness of Collector and the customer support is second to none. Collector provides structure and control which gives me peace of mind that all loans in arrears are being reviewed correctly. There is no way we could deal with the volume of work without Collector. It automates a lot of manual tasks, but also offers the flexibility to deviate from the process when required.

RMS allows us to be proactive in our approach to credit control keeping arrears as low as possible. We identify at an early stage if there is an issue with a member loan and handle the situation with sensitivity to ensure we maintain the member relationship.”

Angela Comer, Operations Manager, Leeds Credit Union

SOLUTION

Following an assessment by a team of experienced consultants, XRS were able to identify the primary shortcomings of Leeds’s existing strategies. Collector was implemented swiftly to streamline workflows and add structure and visibility. Users are now confident they can handle a challenging workload with advanced functionality such as workflow automation, smart account segmentation, payment arrangement monitoring, and multiple communications and payments channels.

RESULTS

• 40% reduction in credit control resources while loan volumes increased
• 12% reduction in loans in arrears
• Return on investment in 6 months
• Reduced write offs and legal referrals
• Peace of mind all accounts are being identified and managed correctly
• System driven collections process rather than collector driven
• Improved management oversight of the credit control function
• Early Intervention members contacted as soon as a payment is missed.