Dylan Jones, IE Hub CEO, responds to the recent FCA ‘Dear CEO Letter’

The cost of living crisis remains in the headlines and is likely to do so for many months as economic commentators and industry experts warn of further affordability pressures towards the end of the year.

Such is the concern, that the FCA felt compelled to issue the ‘Dear CEO letter’ at the end of June setting out what it expects from the industry. This included the fact that they don’t expect firms to wait for the Consumer Duty rules to be finalised or the full findings of the Borrowers in Financial Difficulty review to be published before acting to improve customer outcomes. Key messages included;

-Exploring and understanding the Consumers circumstances fully to enable tailored and sustainable outcomes

-Identify the specific needs and circumstances of Consumers with Vulnerable characteristics to provide help and support that takes account of these

-Help Consumers with Financial Difficulty access money guidance or free debt advice

IE Hub, along with partners, are fully aligned with the FCA and are helping creditors to meet expectations. Key to this is the capture of a detailed Income and Expenditure from the Consumer, as only by doing this can you fully understand their position and agree on the most appropriate outcome.

We have built and are growing an industry response to the collection of Income and Expenditure information which is very different from traditional approaches on the market.

Our solution moves the current one-to-one relationship between a Consumer and a Creditor to a one-to-many relationship. This means the Consumer owns their I&E and can share its affordability position with all Creditors (typically 5-7). This reduces stress on the Consumer as they can complete the journey in their own time and are not being contacted by multiple Creditors all requiring the same information. Creditors benefit also from lower operational costs and more sustainable payment plans.

Only by understanding Consumers commitments, can you enable tailored and sustainable outcomes. Our research shows that 88% of our Consumers who set up a payment plan have been able to stick to it.

The feedback we get from Consumers using the service is humbling and we can see we are making a positive impact in helping Consumers during a difficult period of their lives. 83% of our Consumers find that IE Hub reduced their financial anxiety.

We continue to innovate to assist Vulnerable / Consumers with Financial Difficulty and I am pleased to announce several key initiatives going live on the platform over the next 3 months.

–Vulnerability Registration Service – We have for some time signposted Consumers to the service, but this will be extended to allow for the identification of Consumers already registered. The next step will then be a Creditor using IE Hub being able to flag a Consumer as Vulnerable to the VRS.

–Predictive Vulnerability modelling – In partnership with ARM, we have developed a process within IE Hub that analyses the returned I&E and flags to the Creditor the likelihood of a Consumer being classified as Vulnerable and what characteristics are displayed (as per the FCA guidelines)

-Committed to Supporting Free Debt Advice – We provide our tool and services free of charge to the advice sector, which enables a wider service and more ongoing support for customers in financial difficulty.

We recently won 2 awards at the Credit Today awards:

🎉Vulnerable Customer Strategy of the Year

🎉 Best Technology Provider (end-to-end credit solution)

This was a tremendous endorsement that our unique approach is gaining widespread industry approval.

I hope you also see the value in what we are building at IE Hub and if you or any members of your team would like to discuss anything further, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours Sincerely,

Dylan Jones

IE Hub CEO