Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The Debt Managers Standards Association (DEMSA) has announced that it has partnered with FinTech Amplified Global to enhance communications by regulated debt resolution providers with indebted consumers.
The Amplified Global tool is powered by AI and Machine Learning engines. It has generated significant interest across many sectors from Legal & Financial Services to sectors like Gambling.
Kevin Still, Chief Executive of DEMSA said “It is crucial that the most financially vulnerable facing unmanageable debts are given the best possible support, wherever they turn for help. And this new partnership with Amplified Global provides valuable best practice for debt resolution providers to ensure consistency and intelligibility of messaging across all contact methods and through the customer relationship.
“DEMSA members provide regulated debt advice to tens of thousands of indebted consumers both when first seeking advice and during the course of their managed debt solution. A number of these individuals will have low literacy and numeracy capabilities. The need for high-quality engagement and the identification of vulnerability are key challenges for our members, especially under the customer understanding requirements of the FCA Consumer Duty. Evidencing this is critical.”
Minesh Patel, CEO and Founder of Amplified Global, said “Understanding complex information affects people from all walks of life and is a universal problem no more so than when people are in debt and at their most vulnerable state. Debt communication and industry terminology is often littered unnecessarily across products and services communications. It is fantastic working with DEMSA and its members, we have been able to show that there is another way and that you can change language without losing the meaning to have a positive impact on the reader. Hats off to DEMSA and Kevin Still for taking a leadership role in showing the industry the way forward“
DEMSA recently supported an Innovate UK project in FCA sandbox around ‘intelligibility’ (consumer understanding) with Amplified Global, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and StepChange. The initial work used the Amplified Global toolkit around a number of use cases involving simplified contracts, communications and key consumer touchpoints. DEMSA is excited that Phase 2 in 2025 will cover ‘layering’ of information using smartphone technology. This is very powerful, especially around digital engagement and self-serve technology, where enhancing customer journeys is key under the Duty, especially for those with additional support needs.
Following the ‘Intelligibility’ event held on 21 February 2024 with Amplified Global and StepChange, DEMSA has just teamed up with Minesh Patel and Amplified Global to be able to support members and those on the DEMSA bulletin circulation with assessments of key collateral from an intelligibility and consumer understanding perspective.
Melanie Giles, DEMSA director and member of R3 and the IPA, continues to look at this from an IVA journey perspective as well, where the IVA proposal and supporting documentation can be complex for a consumer with varying levels of capability. This follows a recent report from The Insolvency Service on early IVA failures, which can include consumers not fully understanding the complexity of an IVA.
Giles said “We will be discussing the service in more detail at a free and virtual webinar in the New Year, where we will review the findings of some of the pilot users across the debt management, debt recovery, personal insolvency and debt purchase sectors.”