FINTRAK CREDIT RISK 360: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DRIVEN LOAN UNDERWRITING SOLUTIONS FOR BANKS AND RISK MANAGERS

FINTRAK CREDIT RISK 360: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DRIVEN LOAN UNDERWRITING SOLUTIONS FOR BANKS AND RISK MANAGERS

In today’s ever-changing banking landscape, risk managers in most banks have come to understand the need to deploy appropriate financial tools for risk management. With arrays of software in the market, getting a bespoke risk management software that is designed to meet the peculiar needs of banks and financial institutions becomes a challenge. Having this in mind, FinTrak Software Limited, a financial technology (FinTech) firm with Pan-African outlook has enhanced its Credit Risk 360 Software, an end to end loan underwriting and management system designed for financial risk managers in the country and beyond.

FinTrak Credit Risk 360 solution has demonstrated robust performance and high level of encryption and strengthened with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to drive end to end digital lending activities for small ticket loans and also support loan granting decisions on mid ticket transactions whilst providing robust loan monitoring system.

Speaking on the need for banks to have a tailor-made software to suit their distinctiveness, Bimbo Abioye, the Group Managing Director of Fintrak Software said, the Credit Risk 360 software has been built in line with the global best practice for the financial services sector and also for public sector intervention funds management. The software also has Mobile application which can be used on the go to drive quick transaction turn-around time and enhance operational efficiency.

“FinTrak Credit Risk 360 was designed to help banks meet the need to identify, measure, monitor and control credit risk as well as to assist FIs to ensure they hold adequate capital against these risks and that they are adequately compensated for the risks incurred. The Credit Risk 360 Solutions is a web-based platform that can be easily accessed from all branches of the bank and also via web browsers anywhere in the world via it’s highly secured mobile application”, Bimbo added.

Credit Risk 360 is integrated to two of the three credit bureaus in the country and the third are in the process of integration. This makes feedback from credit bureaus on obligors being underwriting instantaneous and seem less on Credit Risk 360. The platform is also integrated with Central Bank’s CRMS platform for seemly acquisition of loan booking codes and seem less reporting. With the software, banks are made to comply with the Central Bank of Nigeria credit policies and more importantly regulatory reporting requirements. Bad loans and risk of frauds via automation are significantly mitigated with the software.

Fully conceptualized and developed in Nigeria, Credit 360 Software comes with a dashboard that shows the classification of related data, alert messaging that push emails to concerned officers, credit risk origination, credit documentation, collateral management and collateral realization, loan restructuring, loan work out and loan write off and loan sales. Industry stakeholders have lauded FinTrak’s efforts in making risk management practice in the country seamless.

“We took into consideration the various challenges that the risk managers face in the country while building this software. Over time, we realized that most financial institutions buy over the shelf foreign software with little or no support system in place. We tried as much as possible to address these issues with this software. We ensured that we built a software that over time made Credit risk management practice error free”, said Christopher Sualeze, Head, Credit Risk 360 Implementation, Fintrak.

FinTrak Software is a global Financial Technology organization providing innovative technology and business solutions to financial institutions in the financial services sector and enterprises across continents. As a global company, with business head office in Nigeria with presence in Ghana and Gambia. Fintrak is equipped with and army of software engineers and professionals with competencies across banking, finance, audit, consulting and software development.

Anthony Emeka Nwosu

“We took into consideration the various challenges that the risk managers face in the country while building this software. Over time, we realized that most financial institutions buy over the shelf foreign software with little or no support system in place. We tried as much as possible to address these issues with this software. We ensured that we built a software that over time made Credit risk management practice error free”

USSD: Banks owe Telcos N17bn, says Danbatta

USSD: Banks owe Telcos N17bn, says Danbatta

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has said that commercial banks in the country are owing telecommunications companies over N17 billion following the regulator’s suspension of its Determination on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Pricing last year.

The NCC, in furtherance of its mandate to protect the interests of consumers and support a robust telecommunications sector, recently announced that it had revised the Determination on the USSD.
Speaking at ATCON’s virtual forum on “Meeting the Interests of Government, Consumers and Telecoms Companies in the Era of Covid-19 and Post Covid-19 Pandemic for Digital Economy Development”, Danbatta noted that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Ali Isa Ibrahim Pantami had already been briefed on the development with a view to ensuring a quick settlement of the debt.

Explaining the Commission’s efforts at resolving consumer-related issues, he noted that when the Commission introduced the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) code in 2015, less than 500,000 people activated the code, but there are now 22,722,366 lines on the DND.

Danbatta further stated that ninety-eight per cent (98%) of the total service-related complaints received from telecoms consumers within a 15-month period, spanning January 2019 to April 2020, have been successfully resolved by the Commission.  

On quality of service, Danbatta said “the Commission has monthly engagements with operators as well as quarterly industry working group on Quality of Service and Short Codes, and is currently monitoring 2G Key Performance Indicators, while the KPIs for 4G are being prepared.”

It should be recalled that the NCC, in a statement released to the media recently, observed that the amendment to its USSD Determination was necessitated by a protracted dispute between Mobile Network Operators and Financial Institutions on the applicable charges for USSD services and the method of billing. As a responsive and effective regulatory authority, the Commission recognises that its policies are not static and may be modified from time to time as circumstances demand.

According to Danbatta, in the interest of the consumers and other stakeholders, the Commission revised the Determination previously issued by removing the Price Floor and the Cap to allow Mobile Network Operators and the banks negotiate rates that will be mutually beneficial to all parties concerned.

The NCC also determined that Mobile Network Operators must not charge the consumers directly for the use of USSD channels for financial services in the form of end-user-billing, but revert to corporate billing. The transaction should be between the MNOs and the entity to which the service is provided (i.e. Banks and Financial Institutions).

NCC