Recently, Link Financial Outsourcing’s Amanda McCann (Operations Manager responsible for Customer Outcomes) has been made a MALG Ambassador in recognition of her contribution to the organisation over the last 11 years. With only 50 Ambassadors recognised by MALG across the UK, this is a fantastic achievement.  We asked Amanda about MALG’s work and why it is so important.

Congratulations on being made a MALG Ambassador Amanda!  Can you tell us why it’s important to have an organisation like MALG?

MALG is the only organisation which brings together organisations from every stage of the credit journey (lenders, creditors, debt collection, enforcement, academics, debt advice, regulators, trade associations) to identify ways to prevent problem debt arising and to improve the lives of those who are living with it.

It provides an environment where issues can be raised and discussed, solutions identified, and improvements made which ultimately benefit consumers.

MALG’s close relationship with other key industry bodies including the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA), Credit Services Association (CSA), UK Finance and the Lending Standards Board (LSB) strengthens this work.

Over the years we have tackled controversial and critical topics such as gambling harms, marginalised communities, financial capability and funding for debt advice.

How does Link Financial benefit from its membership of MALG?

Link has been a key member of MALG for many years and I have worked closely with them for over 10 years now, since starting to manage our complaints and vulnerable customer area in 2011.

The opportunity to share ideas and collaborate with such a broad range of industry peers is very valuable – for example, we are able to learn first-hand from the debt advice community members about trends in types of vulnerability and numbers of people who are struggling.  We share experiences and learn from our peers, hear from the utility sector via Energy UK and also get updates and information from regulators including the FCA who discuss their expectations and areas of focus, and the Insolvency Service who have been providing guidance around their new rules.

Link can be exceptionally proud of being one of the earliest adopters of identifying vulnerable customers, an initiative based on the original Debt and Mental health evidence forms developed by MALG.

What is your current area of focus in your work with MALG?

This has been a hugely testing time for all of us, still suffering the fallout from the pandemic and now facing an energy and cost of living crisis.

All MALG members are actively looking at providing support for customers, and evaluating support, signposting and forbearance arrangements.

Recently I’ve been working with the team at Surviving Economic Abuse who have been sharing insight into this important but less recognised form of vulnerability, and exploring a possible pilot scheme with them.

In 2019, I was asked to join the Membership Committee to help source likeminded industry peers which was also a real privilege.

Being a MALG Ambassador requires upholding their brand values and tone of voice which is perfectly in line with Link’s long-standing ethos of ethical collections and supporting customers in debt.

The post Link Financial’s Amanda McCann becomes a MALG Ambassador appeared first on Link Financial.

We are pleased to announce that Link Financial Outsourcing MD, Frank Horvath, has been re-elected to the Board of the Credit Services Association (“CSA”) following his original appointment in 2019.

The CSA is the trade association for the debt collection and debt purchase industry, representing the views of its 300+ members when speaking with key stakeholders such as the Government and industry regulators.

They also provide regular updates to members about industry news as well as guidance and resources to member companies to help them conduct their businesses effectively, ethically, compliantly and fairly.

Speaking of his reappointment Frank said “I’m delighted to be re-elected to the board of the CSA and to continue contributing to the important work the organisation does”.

The post Frank Horvath re-elected to the CSA Board of Directors appeared first on Link Financial.

We are proud and excited to have been shortlisted in 4 categories in the Credit Strategy Collections & Customer Services Awards.  Link Financial Outsourcing are finalists for the following awards:

• Best Conduct & Culture
• Best Outsourcing & Partnership Initiative of the Year
• Best Vulnerable Customer Support Team
• Debt Purchaser of the Year

We’re looking forward to attending the Credit Strategy Vulnerability Awareness Gala in Manchester, in November and wish the best of luck to all the finalists.

The post Link Financial Outsourcing are Finalists in four award categories appeared first on Link Financial.

This year, the team at Link Financial Outsourcing has chosen to support MIND as one of their nominated charities. MIND provides access to mental health information, support and services both nationally and at a local level, and they have seen a huge increase in requests for help over the very difficult past year we have all experienced. For this reason, Link Financial has committed to raising money for MIND to help them continue to support those who need their help.

In August, Link Financial held a raffle with fantastic health and wellbeing based prizes on offer, including luxury spa days, wellbeing hampers, personal training sessions and Fit Bits.

The social committee put a lot of work in to organising the event and sold lots of tickets, raising a whopping £764. A huge thank you to everyone who supported the raffle in the Caerphilly office.

LFO are delighted to be able to contribute towards all the good work that MIND does to support people across the UK with mental health issues.

The post Charity Fundraising at Link Financial Outsourcing appeared first on Link Financial.

The new Statutory Breathing Space regulation (SBS) came into force on 4^th May 2021, and provides a period of time for those in problem debt and with mental health issues to get their finances under control.

Those eligible to be granted an official breathing space will have 60 days in which to sort out their financial situation.  The arrangement is overseen by a debt adviser or charity who can offer support. While the SBS is in place, creditors cannot call or contact the debtor and further interest cannot be added to the loan.

Link already had a solid track record of forbearance and of showing support for customers in financial difficulty, and a highly experienced team skilled in coping with the individual needs of customers and working with them to resolve payment difficulties.

So that we would be ready for the introduction of the SBS and to ensure that we would be able to maintain our normal high standards of customer care and compliance with the new regulations, we started planning, preparation and testing months in advance.

The objective was simple – customers in financial difficulty receive debt advice from relevant professional advisers and can qualify for a period of 60 days (or longer for mental health crisis cases), during which time all creditor contact and activity about the qualifying debts are stopped. The intention is to allow customers the time to consider alternative options suggested by debt advisers and to plan the best way forward. As a longstanding service provider in this area, Link has a long track record of working with customers in troubled circumstances to resolve payment difficulties.

In the months before launch, Link set up small project teams to consider the different account portfolios and how the new regulation would impact policies and procedures. Any required amendments to IT systems were an early consideration because of the need to build in sufficient  lead time. We were fortunate that our systems already allowed the flexible provision of 30 days or more breathing space and from that base, we were able to build policies and procedures to cover all our Primary Servicing and Special Servicing portfolio accounts for the new regulations.

With increased use of automation and technology in our industry, one of the challenges we faced was to ensure no contact was made with the customer during the moratorium period.  Suppression of the various channels of contact was necessary, but at the same time being able to respond to queries, handle any complaints and still send the statutory letters that were excluded from the scheme was needed.

As launch day neared, regular updates were shared by a central team and then disseminated to others across the business. Training help sheets were part of the preparations to familiarise those involved with what was expected. Although the account numbers involved were an unknown quantity, it was important that we geared up to cope with any and all potential issues. First line monitoring for accuracy and completeness was built in from the beginning as a daily process. We have supplemented that with second line validation of compliance (on an individual account level basis) which will shortly convert into a sample-based check.

We have yet to reach the first expiry dates, but our thorough preparations and early experiences so far give us cause for optimism, and we continue to provide all of our customers with empathy and support, just as we have always done.

The post Link Financial Outsourcing successfully implements new Breathing Space regulations appeared first on Link Financial.

The Welsh Contact Centre Annual Awards celebrate excellence and innovation practice from individuals and companies across Wales, and is dedicated to recognising and celebrating the best of Wales’ customer service industry.

The judges were impressed by Link’s vulnerable customer management, complaints case handling and overall customer journey.  The steps and actions that Link has taken in these areas to  ensure that customers receive a ‘best in class’ experience is what sets them apart from the competition.

The LFO team strives for continuous improvement and has improved their customer experience and journey even further through enhanced training and technology. This is not only a benefit to customers but also provides reassurance to Vendors who can be assured that their customers are in safe hands.

The post Link Financial wins Customer Engagement Award appeared first on Link Financial.

CBILS is delivered through accredited lenders and is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cash flow.  It supports a wide range of business finance products, including term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance facilities

CBILS has been significantly expanded along with changes to the scheme’s features and eligibility criteria so that greater numbers of smaller businesses across the UK impacted by the Coronavirus crisis can access the funding they need. Insufficient security is no longer a condition to access the scheme. Importantly, access to the scheme has been opened up to those smaller businesses which would previously have met the requirements for a commercial facility, but would not have been eligible for CBILS. This significantly increases the number of businesses eligible for the scheme. The expanded scheme has been operational with lenders since 6 April 2020.

AskIf offer CBILS loans from £10,000 to £60,000 to businesses that have been trading for a minimum of 12 months.

For more information visit: https://www.askif.co.uk/cbils

The post Link Financial services AskIf’s CBILS program appeared first on Link Financial.

The concerns of the UK consumer credit industry may seem petty and unimportant in this context, but they do have a life changing impact on our customers, as well as a financial impact on our investors and stock holders.

The FCA  have been looking at the themes of  viability and fairness to consumers in  the process of broker-driven auto financing at a time when the reducing level of PPI claims pay-outs is impacting consumers ability to finance deposits for new vehicles.

As far as the treatment of vulnerable customers goes, the FCA seems to recognise that most firms now have effective processes and well trained staff to handle those most in need of assistance, and there have been no new requirements in this area.

There has been a racking of brains and emptying of some pockets when it has come to the future of financing of free debt advice.  A hoped for clarification and way forward in terms of the Wyman report came to little and government’s pre-occupation with Brexit has meant little time to get ministers or officials to move this forward in a considered way.

Here at Link Financial Outsourcing, we have had another busy year.

We celebrated our 20^th Anniversary with a number of events including sponsorship of the Credit Strategy Awards in London in the summer.  We were also delighted to be able support the event’s nominated charity, the Bone Cancer Research Trust with a special anniversary donation of £20,000.

The charitable activity didn’t end there as our teams have been very active in fund raising for numerous charities a total of £20,000 for Dementia UK, CLIC Sargent and Velindre Cancer Centre among others.

I was delighted to have been appointed to the CSA Board in February and really appreciate the opportunity to serve the industry in a “hands on” way.

As ever, our Customer First ethos has been front and centre of our activities and we have continued to invest in systems and processes to ensure that we do the right thing in a controlled and prescribed manner, particularly with special segments of customers like those suffering from mental health issues.

In September, we were very proud indeed that our team achieved the highest score in the CSA Collector Accreditation Initiative tests, winning at the UKCCC awards for an amazing 5th year in a row. CAI accreditation is an excellent benchmark, and our successful results reflect the importance that Link attaches to learning and development.

We look forward to an exciting 2020 and wish all of our clients a very happy New Year.

The post Frank Horvath MD reflects on a Year in Credit appeared first on Link Financial.

We asked Jeremy Baber, Director of Operations, about Link’s learning and development programme.

At Link Financial, we pride ourselves on finding positive outcomes for our customers.  How important is learning and development in delivering this?

Our programme is focused on making sure that our team members are well equipped to help customers get their finances back on track. We train our people to do the right thing for our customers, treating them with respect, empathy and dignity.

We understand that no one likes being behind with their loan payments but we ensure that colleagues have the right tools to help customers turn things around – we are here to help.

We also take great care to ensure that vulnerable customers receive appropriate support – how does the development program help with that?

All of our customer-facing team members receive regular vulnerability updates; to make sure they are able to recognise the signs of vulnerability and can refer affected customers to our specialist team.  We train in TEXAS (Thank, Explain, eXplicit consent, Ask, Signpost), BRUCE (Behaviour, Remembering, Understanding, Communication, Evaluation) and IDEA (Impact, Duration, Experiences, Assistance) – which offer a good structure for providing support to customers.

We also have a dedicated specialist team who receive advanced specific and focused training to ensure the right level of care and attention is provided for our most vulnerable customers.

We regularly attend third party conferences and events to stay informed on relevant issues,  for example, the City of London Corporation’s Suicide Prevention Awareness session which is run by the Samaritans.  This helps to make sure we are up to date with the latest developments.

Why do you use the CSA Collector Accreditation Initiative?

Our entire customer facing team takes the CAI test every year.  It covers a wide range of areas, testing knowledge of the FCA, GDPR, the Consumer Credit Act, the CSA’s Code of Practice and much more.

We believe that CAI accreditation is an excellent benchmark, and our successful results reflect the importance that Link attaches to learning and development.  We firmly believe that better trained people deliver positive outcomes for customers which, at the end of the day, is what we are all about.

The post Link Financial Outsourcing – Award Winning Learning and Development appeared first on Link Financial.

The presentation by the Bone Cancer Research Trust team was very powerful.  Hearing that there has been little improvement in the survival rate of bone cancer for nearly 40 years and that there’s a severe lack of funding for research into the disease was disheartening.  It was an easy decision to make the special donation which the Trust intends to use towards funding a new research post at Leeds University.

Mat Cottle-Shaw, Head of Fundraising and Communications at the Bone Cancer Research Trust said: “This very generous gift will help enable us to fund urgently needed additional research this year and will make a huge difference to bone cancer patients now and in the future.”

Frank Horvath, MD, Link Financial Outsourcing said:  “Link Financial is proud to mark our 20^th Anniversary with a charity donation of £20,000 to the Bone Cancer Research Trust, supporting their important research into finding a cure for primary bone cancer and their work to support people who are affected by it. We are extremely impressed by the dedication and determination of this charity which, although small, manages to achieve so much”.

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