Open

Generative AI, New Country Editions, and Comprehensive System Upgrades

We're thrilled to announce TurnKey Lender v.7.11, a major year-end release that represents a significant upgrade, focusing on enhancing the platform's global editions and AI functionalities.

Key updates include two new regional editions. A new UK edition, complete with API integrations, decision rules, and compliance with UK loan processing practices, including integrations with Experian Credit Bureau and TrueLayer banking service. Similarly, a New Zealand edition has been launched with dedicated integrations like Illion Credit Bureau. In the US, the update extends integrations with Plaid and Clarity, offering enhanced functionalities and new product support. The Australian edition is updated with improved Zepto integration and extended Illion bank account verification.

Across all editions, users will experience significant enhancements in areas such as document accessibility, transaction management, and a substantial increase in system events visibility. Most notably, this release introduces two AI-driven features designed to streamline loan processing and improve customer communications, setting a new benchmark in the fintech industry.

TurnKey Lender implements generative AI in loan negotiations and collections

The Generative AI update introduces new loan origination and debt collection tools streamlining interactions between lenders and borrowers. This enhancement enriches TurnKey Lender's suite of AI applications already utilized in credit scoring, decision-making, and collections, integrating Models directly into the lending process. The Borrowers can now interact directly with the built-in language processing models through the AI Assistant to understand the loan terms, and Lenders can implement their power to simplify the loan collection process.

With each subsequent release, we plan to progressively incorporate the AI Assistant across various segments of our Platform, broadening its impact and utility.

Loan agreement interpretation

Understanding the loan agreement might sometimes be tricky, and this is exactly where AI-based conversation can be particularly useful. 

Once the Borrower has opened their agreement in the Borrower's portal, they can view the agreement. If they have any questions, there is an "Explain me with ChatGPT" button.

Open

The system will read through the document and provide the list of main agreement points: 

In the chat below the overview, the Borrower can ask specific questions about the Agreement. Here is an example of such a chat.

AI for communications with Customers

Streamlining borrower communications has always been our focus for the TurnKey Lender Platform. This includes the ability to add customized email and SMS templates and other capabilities of the contact tab. A new way to generate an email to the customer includes the use of AI (ChatGPT) capabilities.

The feature has to be turned on in the configuration, and the list of available message types depends on the specific account settings.

TurnKey Lender provides an easy-to-use but rather extensive collection of settings with which you can create a message that will dynamically use information about the specific loan and customer and follow the tone and needs you've specified.

• TurnKey Lender merge fields are used as message data points that are dynamically added to the email.

• The tone of the messages can be defined. Set it to any tone from “Friendly” to “Final” or go on with the default tone, which is automatically chosen based on the current state of the loan and past dues. 

• The “Make email urgent” setting will reprocess the text so that no one has any doubt about the need to act ASAP.

• Along or even instead of the setting, you can ass a Custom Prompt. For example, you can set the most friendly tone and high level of detalisation, but add a prompt like “According to legal regulation 234 you are obliged to make the payment on time”. While basic settings will be followed, the message will stay rather official.

Both these features are especially useful the most for large-scale financial institutions and consumer finance providers where they ensure lower abandoned debts and increased customer lifetime value, not to mention the saved time and effort for the staff. 

TurnKey Lender adds new regional editions

UK edition added

A new edition for Great Britain has been created. 

UK application form, decision rules, API, and other essentials

All the APIs, import, an application form, and decision rules have been developed for the UK edition and comply with all of the implemented integrations and UK loan processing practices. 

Along with that, we have implemented some in-depth integrations: 

• Integration of two new products of the Experian Credit Bureau

• Integration with TrueLayer banking service

• Integration with the Bottomline payment service provider

• Support of NoSIA/SNoSIA notifications

Credit Bureau products by Experian

Delphy Select and Castlight Affordability Passport products by Experian are now fully compatible with TurnKey Lender.

The integrations provide deeper insights into borrowers' creditworthiness:

• Delphi Select is a Restful web Application Programming Interface (API) that allows access to the Experian Consumer Bureau and associated products and services through directed consumer targeting, and

• Affordability Passport from Experian enables consumers to consent and share their bank account information through a secure, easy-to-use customer journey to show their income, expenditure, and affordability position. 
  The data is analyzed and categorized for trends and insight within seconds and can be accessed using our Affordability Portal or integrated with your systems through API end-points, so you can assess the consumer's affordability and make decisions, based on real data rather than estimates.

Open Banking by TrueLayer

TrueLayer is a global open banking platform that offers financial institutions secure access to financial data and the capability for instant payments. UK lenders can now leverage it for bank verification and statement reports, facilitating automatic bank data verification and statement retrieval. A key feature is the automatic refresh of bank statement data without requiring borrowers to re-login, maintaining continuous data accuracy and streamlining loan processing without extra load on the customers.

Bottomline payment provider 

Preconfigured integration with Bottomline, one of the most advanced local payment providers, allows UK lenders to perform disbursements and repayments directly from TurnKey Lender as well as to schedule direct bank transfers. 

NoSia/SNoSIA notifications 

In the UK, lenders are required by law to send a letter if a borrower falls two or more payments behind on a loan. The UK edition of the TurnKey Lender incorporates necessary notifications to meet UK regulatory standards, ensuring the lending process adheres to local compliance requirements seamlessly. 

These enhancements specific to the UK Edition focus on improving decision-making, transaction efficiency, and regulatory compliance, reinforcing TurnKey Lender's commitment to providing robust and adaptive solutions in the dynamic financial landscape. 

New Zealand edition added

A new edition for New Zealand has been created. 

Application form, decision rules, API, and other essentials for New Zealand edition

All the APIs, import, an application form, and decision rules have been developed for the UK edition and comply with all of the implemented integrations and NZ loan processing practices.

illion integrations

To serve our New Zealand customers better, we’ve introduced two integrations with iIllion, one of the top credit reference agencies in New Zealand:

• Illion Credit Bureau (with Decision rules):

• Illion Bank Verifications (with Decision rules and Scorecard)

Both integrations result in the collection of a report from illion, and information from this report can be used in the decision-making within TurnKey Lender. This enhances credit and bank verification processes, integrating Illion's services into the loan processing flow, and bolstering decision-making accuracy.

TurnKey Lender updates existing editions

US edition updated

We have updated the US edition with:

• New Plaid capabilities

• Support of the New Equifax product  

• Improved Clarity integration, and

• Repay Tokenization support

Additional Plaid capabilities 

To offer more balance between cost and functionality, our Decision Engine has learned to extract more meaningful data from statement information available in a lower-tier Plaid subscription. While in-depth credit scoring requires full Assets and Transactions Plaid reports, TurnKey Lender Decision rules will still work effectively even if your Plaid subscription only includes basic borrower details.  

Pre-Approval of One™ by Equifax

Equifax’s new Pre-Approval of One™ allows for credit application initiation without impacting the credit score. A hard inquiry is only made if the consumer accepts the pre-approved offer, enhancing the consumer experience while maintaining rigorous evaluation. 

Lenders on the TurnKey Lender Platform can now fully utilize this product, alongside the two previously supported Equifax products, i.e. Prequalification Of One and Consumer Credit Report.

Enhanced integration with Clarity   

• We’ve improved the way TurnKey Lender interprets and explains Clarity CB responses. Now the descriptions of Clarity responses are understandable for the user both in the integration settings and when analysing borrower data. Integration improvements ensure a clear understanding of credit bureau responses, especially in cases of negative feedback. 

• We've also ensured support of two more Clarity products:

  • Clear Advanced Attributes™ : provides significant supplemental information to Clear Credit Risk™, enabling lenders to optimize their credit risk strategies

  • Clear Bureau Lite™ : a credit report that provides lenders with a choice of up to three credit scores and 85 Experian Premier AttributesSM to evaluate a consumer’s creditworthiness.

This has broadened the number of Clarity products supported by TurnKey Lender to nine

Repay tokenization support

To enhance the ACH and card payments, our long-term partners at Repay have implemented a new, more secure way to transfer funds, and we’ve ensured that the feature is fully supported in TurnKey Lender.The innovative approach of tokenization substitutes sensitive data with unique, non-specific tokens, offering an elevated level of data protection and robust payment support for lenders using the Repay integration.

Australian edition updated

Zepto (Split pay) integration has been significantly improved and illion bank account verification integration was extended for the AU edition of TurnKey Lender. 

Disbursements to vendors with Zepto  

We have improved the Zepto (Split Pay) integration, and it now supports direct disbursement to vendors via Zepto without excessive participation of the consumers. 

New illion parameter for decision-making

Illion Bank Provider integration incorporates illion's Transaction Risk Score (ITRS) into decision rules, offering a more nuanced risk assessment for lending decisions. 

Additional behavior optimization

Moreover, if the System is integrated with both Illion Bank verification and Zepto, the Payment agreement signing with Zepto can be skipped if a special agreement is set between Illion and Zepto on their side.

TurnKey Lender supports OAUth method for Docusign integration (All editions)

OAuth for DocuSign Connect allows administrators to grant scope-based access to resources to DocuSign Connect while ensuring integrity and authenticity and has been recommended by DocuSign as the first-choice option. Therefore, it is now supported by TurnKey Lender. The integration settings are updated to simplify onboarding, in particular, the link to consent (which is mandatory for the OAUth method in DocuSign Connect) is added at the bottom of the integration details. (Settings → Integrations → Document signing → Docu Sign)

TurnKey Lender provides more accountability and information

Permissions, logging of the actions, the ability to set up rules, and obtaining up-to-date information are important elements of successful lending and one of our priorities when it comes to the improvement of the application.  With this release we:

• Added ability to require approval of the write-offs

• Added details of the mentioned users to the loan comments log

• Provided borrowers with the ability to view and download system documents

• Made a transaction reverse reason obligatorily 

• Added ability to define if the equal payment amount can be edited, and if so but what type of users. The setting is defined at the credit product level.

More accountability for the back office

Write-off approval functionality

Write-offs are standard practice in loan lending as they allow lenders to manage financial risks and maintain accurate accounting by acknowledging loans that are unlikely to be repaid. This practice is essential for regulatory compliance, tax benefits, and ensuring the financial health of the lending institution. However, it can also be related to potential financial mismanagement or fraud and financial losses. This is why it is now possible to add Write-off approval as a step of the normal loan lifecycle. 

The feature is enabled in the Settings → Application process → Application flow → Write-off approval

If it is enabled, users without write-off permission can only suggest a write-off, while users with this permission can see loans in the "Write off" status and approve or decline the request. 

Mentioned users added to the loan comments history

Yet another feature that enhances the accountability of the users in the system is a new "Comments" tab improvement. 

As you know, when adding a comment to the loan, it is possible to Add a user notification.  For example, we have mentioned two users with the "Write-off approval" permission asking to consider the write-off.  

After such a message is sent, "Mentioned users" details will be available: 

Mandatory payment reverse reasons

When a registered transaction is reversed, all the participants need to know the reason for such a change. 

Moreover, some reasons may cause additional consequences, e.g. a fee for non-sufficient funds can be applied. To cover this need we've added Reason as a mandatory step to reverse a transaction.

When a manager reverses a payment transaction manually, they must provide a reversal reason.  
These data are visible in reports for every failed/reversed transaction (auto-reversed and manually reversed).

Limitations for Equal Payment processing

When a credit product with an equal payment is created, the company policies may allow or not allow other users to change the equal payment. This usually depends on the nature of the product and can be defined in the Credit Product settings. 

You can also disable editing of the value - uncheck both options in the "Who can edit ..." tab

Borrowers can view/download system documents at any time

The "System documents" section is now available under the "Active loans" section of the Borrower's Portal at all times. The Borrower can now see all System documents available to them or initial designs of such documents at every moment of the loan processing.
Final versions of the documents can be downloaded (i.e. until the Loan Agreement has been executed it is a draft version - the Borrower can view it but cannot download it).

Other Improvements

We are constantly working on making the system more user-friendly and reducing the load of manual work. With this release, we have added some more defaults, removed some of the limitations, and improved calculations. These are some of the latest improvements implemented:

Suspending the last scheduled transaction

Earlier, when a transaction was suspended it couldn't be done for the last scheduled payment date. As of now, the option has been enabled and the last payment date is included in the payment date multi-selector.

Enabling notifications for imported loans

By default when loans are imported to TurnKey Lender via API the notifications are suppressed to make sure that we don't send out any outdated or excessive messages. However, sometimes the loans are imported at very early stages (e.g. if the client uses their own or third-party verification system beyond TurnKey Lender and then imports the loan to TurnKey. After this release, the POST/Management/Loan API method has an additional parameter SendNotifications. By default, the parameter is set to false (to make sure no unwanted messages are sent). If you want to enable notification, set the value to true.

Improved Past Due Interest calculations for Rule 78

Initially, past due interest for Rule 78 was calculated based on the number of days in the next installment, while now it is calculated based on the number of days in the year (365 days by default). If required, the number of days in the year can be modified in the advanced mode