Thursday, 27 April 2023
12 pm BST

Empathetic lending: putting customers at the heart of your processes

In partnership with

Why attend

The lending landscape is in a state of turbulence. Crises are nothing new to the 2020s, from the COVID-19 pandemic to last year’s turbulent mini budget, the sector is finding fertile ground on which to innovate, alongside economic and behavioural concerns to address.

Unstoppable digital forces and disruptive new competition is continuing to shake the sector, and lenders face a delicate balancing act: seeking to help consumers who are under enormous strain, whilst still doing what is best for their business.

It is clear that this shift is making rapid product innovation in lending a necessity to stay ahead – but at the heart of this sit your customers, where successful innovation will be measured by the degree to which future lending products better enable them to navigate their way through difficult economic terrain, purchase their first home and meet their future goals.

It is time for financial institutions to make a commitment to empathetic lending, by putting customers at the heart of your lending model and prioritising the support for those who need it most. There are numerous opportunities to be gained if lenders think creatively, but with events changing on a daily basis, how can you weather the lending storm?

The key take-aways

Challenges and opportunities in the current lending landscape

Creating agile lending products and agreements

Understanding customer journeys to create an empathetic lending process

Putting consumers at the heart of your lending model

The webinar panel

Click to view full speaker details

Steve Cox, Chief Commercial Officer | FLEET MORTGAGES

Katrin Herrling, CEO and Co-Founder | FUNDING XCHANGE

Mark Foulsham, Chief Operating Officer | KENSINGTON MORTGAGES

Mark has more than 30 years’ experience in driving transformative change and digital innovation within various sectors, most recently Financial Services. He has primarily worked with Fintechs, start-ups and digitally led organisations, in particular those aiming to pioneer market-leading initiatives. He joined Kensington in 2019 taking on the role of Chief Operation Officer, responsible for Lending Operations, Servicing, Technology, Change and Procurement. His prior roles have included leading similar functions for esure, GoCompare, Macquarie Bank and Bouygues. Mark sits on advisory Boards for Winmark and CIONET, has authored books on data protection and has been a Non-Executive Director for cloud-solutions business, Cobweb.

Conrad Ford, Chief Product & Strategy Officer (SMF18) | ALLICA BANK

After an early career in banking which included a spell in corporate strategy, I gained a passion for digital whilst COO of a member of the ‘Deloitte Fast 500’ fastest-growing technology firms. This led me to start my own digital financial technology (fintech) business Funding Options, which is listed in the 2022 Financial Times 'FT 1000' fastest-growing firms in Europe, and has an exceptional 95%+ Trustpilot customer satisfaction rating.

I now enjoy doing things that make use of my unique experience, having led both corporate business units as well as new digital ventures, built market-leading direct channels as well as blue-chip partnerships, and been at the centre of an industry responding to unprecedented disruption.

Personally I embrace new challenges, where I’ve learnt - often the hard way - the value of modern management techniques, whether it’s lean approaches to new ventures, agile product development or OKRs to drive performance. I also love building high-performing teams, where my own startup was named in 2019’s ‘Escape 100’ best UK smaller companies to work for, and I achieved a 97% personal approval rating on leading employer ratings website Glassdoor.

Kerry Nicolaides, Consultancy Director – Financial Services | SOPRA STERIA GROUP

Kerry brings her 18+ years of experience of working in financial services and developing propositions to Sopra Steria Group. In particular, Kerry brings her passion and knowledge on financial wellbeing and vulnerability. As the requirements from employers, members and regulation drive higher expectations within these areas, Kerry helps our internal teams and our clients embed these capabilities into future services and demonstrates the value that these create. Kerry is a fierce advocate for the citizen or member when it comes to pensions, and she strives to work with our teams and partners to increase accessibility and improve the overall health and welfare of members.

Richard Broadbent, Head of Europe | SOPRA BANKING SOFTWARE

Download the Webinar

This webinar is in partnership with

We are more than just a leader of financial technology.

Sopra Banking Platform and Sopra Financing Platform are designed to answer the needs of financial institutions across the globe: large banking groups, neobanks, lenders, auto dealers, payment institutions and many more. We help navigate challenging and changing times, by guiding them through their digital transformation with our solutions and a strong commitment to collaboration.

We’re building our solutions based on the latest technologies to support our clients in their transformation and take the complexity away, so they can focus on what is really important to them.

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