20th December 2021.
Awards success
One of the most notable achievements is our awards success. Our first victory was at the Credit Strategy Women in Credit Awards where our Senior Business Analyst, Stacey Richards, was given the silver award for Team Player of the Year.
The digital affordability tool we delivered to Zopa was then recognised at the Credit & Collections Technology Awards by winning the Best Use of Technology category. Subsequently we’ve been listed in Credit Connects Top 20 Company Power List.
We then brought another award home from the Credit Strategy Collections and Customer Service Awards after being named Best Technology Provider. Zopa’s digital income and expenditure solutions then scored a double after beating off stiff competition from other well-respected fintechs and claimed Best Use of Technology at the Credit Strategy Credit Awards – otherwise known as the ‘Oscars of the credit and financial services industry’.
New product developments
Behind the scenes our developers have been working really hard to enhance our technology and allow our clients to support their customers who require financial assistance. Using lowcode has allowed us to scale and enhance our digital platforms and we’re set to launch a host of new features so they can help more people with vulnerabilities and improve accessibility to a wider demographic. These features include voice biometrics, touch and face ID, voice recognition and PSIP.
From a market perspective, the technology features we already have – and are set to – put in place reflect how we’ve quickly responded to and met increased regulatory, client and customer demands.
Supporting improvements to the debt advice sector
The pandemic has resulted in a huge increase of people falling into arrears with their creditors and requesting payment holidays. There’s also been a huge surge in the number of people seeking debt advice. We have not only continued to provide the technology for our sister company, and free debt advice provider, PayPlan, but also supported the provision of digital debt advice as part of a new partnership with Debt Free London.
The Money and Pension Service-funded partnership of charities announced its vision for the future of debt advice in October, which includes using technology to improve accessibility and help more people get the debt advice they need.
As we navigate out of the pandemic, our technology will play a key role in guiding agents and customers to reach the best outcomes, including eligible debt solutions.
Thank you to our fantastic team
Of course, we couldn’t have achieved all we have this year without the amazing efforts of everyone in the team. Despite the challenges thrown at us by the pandemic, each person at Paylink has continued to deliver 100% effort – whilst managing their own personal struggles Covid has brought along.
In fact, the way our team supported PayPlan saw the transition of its entire team being able to work from home in just five days, ensured an uninterrupted debt advice service, and resulted in PayPlan winning an award for business continuity and being named Debt Advice Provider of the Year.
Looking ahead to 2022
Rising living and energy costs are seeing most people tighten their purse strings and look to budget more effectively. Unfortunately, it’s likely the number of people falling into financial difficulty and seeking support – either directly from their lenders, or from debt advice providers – will increase.
With this in mind, our focus on ensuring this support is available and accessible to everyone will remain a strong focus. Improving the financial wellbeing of people, particularly those who are vulnerable, will also be high on financial services’ agenda, so we’re going to continue to develop our fintech to support the improved delivery of financial support across the UK.
Find out more about Paylink Solutions here.
