How Technology can change the Auto Finance Industry

How Technology can change the Auto Finance Industry

By John Lewis

October 16, 2017

The ability to utilize technology to increase your view into how people behave has never been more opportunistic. As we move into 2018, the auto finance industry is finally catching up to the need, and desire, to use Artificial Intelligence. They still face challenges similar to what we saw when we launched masterQueue in 2011, but the times are changing.

Many companies still manually gather data versus using automated big data gathering strategies, and many companies are still using collector and skip tracer intuition instead of using predictive analytics and automation to collect and use the right information based on historically tracked results.

The manual data gathering process creates an avalanche of unstructured data that must be manually processed inside a person’s brain, which wastes time that would be better spent making phone calls to numbers an algorithm can project will be more accurate than what the average collector can do manually. This is especially true in the earlier stages of delinquency, where intuition is not needed, but more phone numbers to call that facilitate contact with a customer you’ve lost touch with is exactly what’s needed, so why manually look for data?

“Because that’s how we’ve always done it”.

This gets to one of the main points of what our masterQueue 2017 user conference will focus on, and a driving topic in many presentations you’ll see at www.UsedCarWeek.biz this November; Technology that utilizes Artificial Intelligence in collections will create efficiencies, but you can’t be afraid to make changes.

I received a call from a large consulting company the other day to discuss AI, so I went back and watched our seven minute masterQueue product launch video from 2011 at Finovate…

http://finovate.com/videos/finovatespring-2011-intellaegis/

In that product launch, I said:

“If its public information and its available, we automate the gathering of the data, and then we add structure and intelligence by organizing and consolidating the data, validating the addresses and phone numbers, and finally we provide an overall “findability” score that we call “FINDEX”.”

Findex is Artificial Intelligence before anyone was using those words in everyday discussions. Since 2011, we have gathered tens of millions of pieces of data, and last month we hit a new record of 100K pieces of data gathered in one day. That’s a run rate of 26 million phone numbers and addresses gathered a year, and I think we’re just scratching the surface.

I recently read an article by Ursula Cottons, Chief Data Officer at Citizens Bank:

https://banking-analytics.bankingciooutlook.com/cxo-insights/volumetovalue-the-analytics-promise-nwid-224.html

I’ll share some quotes from Ursula’s analysis of the direction the industry is moving, as we see her insight is not only spot on, but it’s what we’ve been striving to accomplish since 2011:

• “The greatest opportunity for analytics in the banking sector may be the power it provides in terms of data quality”
  • At masterQueue, we score data in real-time to drive a higher Right Party Contact (RPC) Score.
  • We analyze the quality and quantity of the data to drive collectors and skip tracers to contact the most likely ph# to reach lost customers.
  • We also can tell them when to call, and as importantly, who not to call due to regulatory restrictions.
    • If you’re not measuring your data providers against each other, you are operating blindly.
    • If you’re not constantly looking for new data that can drive higher results, you are stagnant and should be on the hunt for new data as every year there are many new data providers that provide insightful data to drive delinquency and losses down.
      • Come to our mQ User Conference on Nov 13^th and meet some of these companies as what they have is revolutionizing collections

• “Data analytics builds a picture for banks that helps them study workflow intricacies that may have otherwise gone unnoticed in a flood of reports, schedules and processes.”
  • You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and you can’t effectively measure data if you’re working in multiple systems.

• “Marry this system with a powerful data analytics tool and you have a single-pane-of-glass view of your projects and processes that facilitates quicker service delivery and project completion”
  • An example of this is how masterQueue interfaces with iRepo & Recovery Connect, an industry leading repossession assignment software offered by MBSi.
    • Over half of the largest auto finance lenders use this software to distribute their repo assignments, so it’s a relevant example
  • We have a client that’s a lender that uses masterQueue internally for collections and skip, and they use iRepo to distribute repossession assignments to 3^rd and 4^th party Forwarding and Repo Agency vendors
  • This seamless integration allows the lender and vendor to work in one “single-pane-of-glass view”, as Ursula dedscribes, and this solves the following issues:
    • Data analytics from skip data gathered in masterQueue is used to improve repossession percentages and to reduce days to repo in iRepo
    • Proposed CFPB debt collection data sharing rules are now a non-issue as the bank now has their internal staff and their external vendors all working in a connected system that seamlessly shares data through real-time bi-directional interfaces
    • Their 3^rd and 4^th party vendors are now working in the same software the bank vetted from as security perspective, so their customers PII is not being sent to foreign systems that have no security clearance from the lender
    • The combination of masterQueue and iRepo creates redundancy in the remote chance one system goes down, as the other system can perform many of the same functions with little or no business interruption.

Since 2011 we have built more interfaces into more data companies than any other software, in any industry. We make data available to our customers in real-time from Experian, Equifax, Transunion, Clear, LexisNexis, TLO, AutoCheck, Innovis, WhitePages, Peoplefinders, Infutor, DRN, PLS, Thomson Reuters and several others, and this year we’ve added Bankruptcy Watch, IDI, Factor Trust and Carfax, each of whom will be at our user conference on November 13^th to explain how their data adds value to masterQueue.

When you capture this data and add business intelligence to it, you change the game. When you do this for multiple companies who have an opportunity to collaborate together to achieve better results, and you can change an industry. That’s the main goal of our 2017 masterQueue user conference; Changing the Auto Finance Industry.

This year’s meeting kicks off www.UsedCarWeek.Biz on Monday morning November 13^th at 9AM in Palm Springs. CA. This will be our third annual user conference, and we’re excited about the opportunity to discuss how we’re working with additional integrated partners, more lenders and 3^rd and 4^th party vendors, and how we’re constantly striving to make masterQueue a more valuable tool in regard to collections, skip tracing, repossession, and compliance management.

Whether you’re a masterQueue user, or a company interested in using masterQueue for Collections or Skip, or to improve your repossession rates in the manner that I mentioned above, we hope you can attend our User Conference.  To register please visit www.Intellaegis.com and scroll down to register for UsedCarWeek. Space is limited.

This years conference has some of the best speaking content of any show I’ve seen in years. In my next blog later this week I’ll dive into some of the details of the different sessions and why this is a can’t miss event.