Vulnerability is the new normal: Agenda preview launched for Collections & Vulnerability Summit

Bearing the theme Vulnerability is the new normal, the Collections & Vulnerability Summit will bring together the leaders influencing how vulnerable customers are assisted, across multiple sectors, as they share experiences and best practice for customers affected by Covid-19.

Collections leaders will explore the scale of the pandemic’s impact on customers, new volumes of customers now identified as vulnerable, forbearance amid the end of payment holidays, industry collaboration and several topics around technology.

After creditors and collections organisations switched to work-from-home polices en masse in March, the Collections & Vulnerability Summit will feature debates on the critical role of automation, how the pandemic may act as a catalyst for digital transformation across collections, and how the deployment of data and analytics to assess affordability has evolved since the lockdown.

Delegates will also discover longer-term operational implications for collections functions, with a final debate uncovering how working practices may have changed forever.

The Collections & Vulnerability Summit will again incorporate the Collections, Debt Sale & Purchase Conference (CDSP), and the Utilities & Telecoms (U&T) Conference, uniting professionals in credit and collections across the financial services, public, energy, water and telecoms sectors. An agenda outline (speakers will be added later), can be seen on the event website.

The insight and discoveries on offer through a varied agenda will include:

- How collections teams are deploying data and analytics tools to assess fluctuating affordability;

- The options being offered to customers once payment holidays expire;

- The role of automation and wider technology in collections and recoveries;

- Collaboration between industry, regulators, the advice sector and government, now necessary for customers’ financial recovery.

The Collections & Vulnerability Summit will take place at the Midland, Manchester, on October 15. Credit Strategy is exploring social distancing measures for all events, and some event dates are subject to change due to government policy changes on social restrictions.