Swisscard improves early collections

One of the leading credit card companies in Switzerland, Swisscard AECS GmbH, has optimized its early collections using FICO (www.fico.com) analytics resulting in a 50% increase in revenue from billable collection expenses; a reduction in account terminations by more than 30%, and net credit losses by more than 40%.

At the same time Swisscard increased its Net Promoter Score by more than 11 points through improved customer interactions.

“With over 1.5 million cards in our portfolio and a 28% share of the market, our growth strategy meant taking on new customers with an optimized risk/return profile,” says Ignazio Provinzano, Head of Risk Operations at Swisscard.  “We were concerned about the continuation of current high recovery results and higher collection account volumes as well as maintaining the high levels of service for which we are known, so we turned to FICO to help fine-tune our approach.”
 
Using a data driven segmentation strategy to facilitate a more targeted collections focus helped overcome some of the early collections constraints such as collector capacity and limited use of self-servicing mechanisms such as two-way SMS and IVR.  Substantial additional productivity gains were made from improvements to existing dialler technology which saw a 60% increase in collector efficiency.  A better customer experience was also established by better aligning customer communications with non-verbal collection actions such as late fee and card block.
 
“By making improvements across the business, the results have been spectacular,” says Jens Dauner, Managing Director DACH & Central Europe, FICO.  “The changes are both effective and multi-pronged; Swisscard has collected substantially more revenue, re-designed its customer communications to create a more consistent and positive customer journey and improved collector productivity.”