Kedin speeds up acceptance of smaller loans with decision management from Notilyze

Kedin offers payment and financing solutions for consumers and businesses. The fintech company’s solutions help consumers stay in control of their budget. There are two main activities: providing loans to consumers and enabling businesses to conclude ’full operational lease’ contracts, whereby consumers pay for the use of a product or service rather than purchasing it.

“If people have a setback, such as their washing machine breaking down, they can choose to spread the payments. Even healthcare payments can be financed in this way. As more and more healthcare costs are no longer being reimbursed by the insurer, people are increasingly choosing to pay for expensive dental treatment such as a new crown, for example, in 36 instalments. You could really finance any form of consumer expenditure in this way,” explains Michel Westerduin, Business Unit Director at Kedin.

What is more, the trend is for consumers to increasingly pay for use rather than ownership. “One of our clients is the bedding discount company Dekbeddiscounter, which offers a box spring bed lease. You don’t buy a bed; instead, you take out a subscription for a comfortable sleeping experience. If you can’t get a good sleeping position, someone will come along to replace the top mattress, for instance.”

Very labour-intensive

To qualify for a loan, consumers must satisfy certain legal conditions. What is more, only financial institutions with a licence from the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets are allowed to provide loans. Westerduin: “If a consumer submits an application for payment in instalments, a check are made with the National Credit Register, an income and expenses check is made, and a check that the consumer is not under guardianship. This used to be very labour-intensive, so lenders were not keen to provide loans of less than 1000 euros. There were simply too many tasks involved to make such a loan cost-effective.”

However, Notilyze’s decision management service has now made the provision of such smaller loans an interesting option for Kedin. Westerduin: “When Kedin started out in 2015, the intention was always to automate what had traditionally been manual tasks. Only it was not possible back then to do this comprehensively. There were still staff carrying out manual checks. The Notilyze decision management system makes that a thing of the past. This lets us accept or reject clients who apply for a loan of up to 1000 euros on the basis of various external data sources, business rules and models.”

During the implementation, Notilyze refined the service time and again so that it is now tailored very much to Kedin’s requirements. Westerduin: “This made it an enjoyable experience working together. After just one meeting with Notilyze, they knew where the challenges lay and they were able to contribute ideas at the business level. They were very agile and the lines of communication were short and direct.”

More efficient credit-rating checks

Notilyze’s decision management system has hugely improved the efficiency of credit-rating checks for Kedin: now when a consumer opts for payment in instalments when making a purchase online, the system determines automatically whether they are eligible for this. Kedin has specified its own business rules for this so that the right decision can be taken for every application. Westerduin: “Imagine you are at the vet’s and your pet needs treatment. In that situation, you need to know quickly whether you are eligible for a loan that lets you pay for it in instalments. Now all the information is collected and merged in short order — a postcode check to see whether the address really exists, as well as a National Credit Register check and an income and expenses check. The Notilyze decision management system then uses the bandwidths we specified to produce a recommendation on whether or not to enter into a contract with the consumer.”

Self-learning software

From a legal point of view the full operational lease is not a loan, but Notilyze’s service also covers the acceptance of these contracts. “The rules for the acceptance of lease contracts are different to those for credit agreements but because a modular setup was used for the decision management service, it can be applied in multiple areas. The fact that the service is self-learning is also really nice. Past results are taken into account when taking new decisions, so the assessments and the associated consumer protection are continually improving,” says Westerduin.

Any company that deals with consumers and consequently incurs payment risks can benefit from this, he thinks. “The fact that the acceptance rate for contract applications has not increased following the implementation of the Notilyze decision management system says it all. The real gain is in having a faster, cheaper process plus better protection for consumers than in the past.”