Nivo picked to develop a solution for government ‘Affordable Credit Challenge’

Nivo makes accessing financial products easy and quick for applicants, enabling community lenders like Credit Unions to compete with the customer experience of the large UK FinTechs, like Monzo or Revolut or the speed and ease offered by other, less ethical lenders.

While the UK is the FinTech capital of the world, millions of people are still unable to access fair and affordable credit. Credit Unions and other community lenders offer an affordable alternative to high-cost credit, but their access is barred by old technology, lengthy processes, and inconvenient channels.To combat this disparity, Nesta Challenges in partnership with HM Treasury designed the Affordable Credit Challenge to combine the values and reach of the community lending sector with the insights and capabilities of some of the UK’s greatest FinTech businesses. A Credit Union or other community lender looking to improve their accessibility needed to apply for the challenge. Together with Edinburgh-based Capital Credit Union as the applicant, and Glasgow-based tech provider, Soar, Nivo entered, with the team winning £150k to go towards the development of the solution.

The Solution

Capital Credit Union surveyed their members to understand how they could improve their customer engagement, with results showing that they wanted a more digital process that achieved better access to all services, as well as a method of communication similar to texting or WhatsApp. This made the inclusion of Nivo’s app-based mobile messaging an essential element of their solution.Capital Credit Union then pitched to Nivo and Soar to integrate their products to create a full end-to-end solution from a member perspective and internally. To do this, the Nivo team developed a Mobile SDK (software development kit), meaning the Nivo App can now be white-labeled with an institution's branding and integrated into other technology solutions.Marlene Shiels OBE, CEO of Capital Credit Union, states: “We continue to focus on our members. This collaboration with Nivo and Soar will help us realise our vision to digitalise our member journey and maintain our ethos of enabling access to affordable credit.”[caption id="attachment_1587" align="alignright" width="640"]

What Does This Mean for Credit Unions?

This combined solution will hopefully attract Credit Unions and affordable credit to new audiences, including financially excluded and young people.It will also hopefully raise the bar of the technology solutions available to the Credit Union sector. As more Credit Union technology providers integrate with Nivo, the market can achieve simpler onboarding and better customer experience, improving the accessibility of financial products and affordable credit across the UK.