AccountScore and The Insolvency Panel announce Open Banking solution

AccountScore, together with The Insolvency Panel, have announced the launch of the first ever Open Banking solution for the debt advice and debt solutions sector.

The service, going live in February, will use AccountScore’s Open Banking platform consents.online to instantly auto-populate consumers’ income and expenditure information, direct from their current account, in complete compliance with the Standard Financial Statement. The offering will give face-to-face and telephone debt advisors the opportunity to get a full and accurate picture of a client’s situation instantly and enable them to concentrate on advice rather than data gathering. Insolvency practitioners and debt management plan administrators will also be able to benefit from accurate information throughout the life of an arrangement.

Bucking the trend of the usual cycle of annual debt advice review, the solution will provide an accessible and easy to use web portal and app that will enable consumers to continually monitor their financial circumstances, providing ongoing assistance in the rehabilitation out of debt over a period of time.

Emma Steeley, CEO of Account Score, said: “We are delighted to be working with The Insolvency Panel as their Open Banking partner of choice. Debt advice is something that we are incredibly passionate about and I believe that by partnering with The Insolvency Panel, together we will improve the experience of people struggling with debt and improve financial awareness and inclusion for customers, while providing a robust, easy to use platform for the industry.”

The new offering harnesses the power of Open Banking to allow the financially vulnerable to easily share their data with financial institutions securely, in a real time environment and provide a full and accurate assessment of data in the required format. Currently, customers seeking debt advice are required to go through repeated and lengthy processes over the phone to provide their full income and expenditure.

Andrew Smith, Director at The Insolvency Panel, said: “Working with AccountScore will enable TIP to transform debt advice from the outset by replacing the burden of data-gathering, and the risk of inaccuracy, with the opportunity for debt advisors to spend more time supporting clients. But our plan is to use Open Banking to support people in debt solutions from one end of the plan to another and to improve their financial capability. To that end we chose AccountScore’s consents.online platform because its emphasis on giving people transparent control of how their data is used is key to our need to make vulnerable consumers feel confident and empowered.”

Source: AccountScore