Head Of Collections at Prodigy Finance

What you will do

We are looking for an experienced Debt Review or Collections Manager to look after our collections team based in Cape Town. This person will be fully accountable for setting Prodigy Finance’s global collections strategy and policy, managing both hard and soft collections (1 to 180 days in arrears) while delivering amazing customer experience.

The role requires strong communication and handovers between the Loan Originations team, in-house Legal and the School Relationship Managers who service the top Universities around the world as well as external lawyers and/or debt recovery agencies as and when appropriate. The ability to work closely with the legal team on enforcement processes would be highly advantageous. 

Importantly, the individual in this role should treat debtors and third parties in line with our values of respect, and courtesy; and equally importantly as a lender regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in line with all FCA rules, regulations and guidelines and other codes of conduct and ethics. Prodigy Finance’s operations team is located in Cape Town, South Africa with the role reporting to the Chief of Customer Success and Operations. 

Some of the roles and responsibilities of this role

• Set and implement best practice regarding debt collections policies and activities
• Take ownership for the debt collection efforts for our loan portfolio working with borrowers to reduce the number of past due accounts and to minimise the defaults
• Conceptualize and drive a long-term collections strategy that is effective at maintaining portfolio health whilst ensuring a customer experience in line with the Prodigy Finance brand values
• Ensure key performance SLA’s are maintained across the collections team
• Leverage your expertise and experience when managing a global customer base and nuances such as multiple time zones and many cultures to improve collections rates in a rapidly growing book 
• Collect delinquent loans through correspondence and personal contact with borrowers
• Develop and implement robust skip-tracing techniques, to obtain information to locate borrowers
• Oversee preparation of borrower accounts for legal enforcement; Maintain records of data and information on cases
• Apply forbearance options to delinquent loans in line with the loan management policy
• Work closely with the Credit Risk team in developing collections strategies and forbearance options
• Ensure FCA and Codes of Conduct compliance
• Develop and maintain operational dashboards
• Implement operational efficiency of our collections process, as measured through collection rates
• Improve lending portfolio health through collections and servicing targets (% arrears, defaults and engagement effectiveness)

What the ideal candidate be great at

• People management and development including day to day motivation and effective leadership of front line to ensure a happy, healthy and high-performing collections team 
• A team player with the ability to establish positive working relationships across various functions. You understand that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
• Passionate about customer experience, strive for operational excellence and able to apply best practices within a financial services environment with a compliance mindset
• Driven, energetic and ambitious and not afraid to be assertive and get your hands dirty. Strong attention to detail, and the ability to switch between the big picture and day to day operations
• Create ideas, think outside the box, be a problem solver and solution finder, be proactive, use initiative to develop and improve
• Able to diagnose issues, find the necessary data, analyse the alternatives, and engage in a methodical problem solving process
• Biased to focussed action - able to align and prioritise actions and resources in advance to achieve the best possible outcomes including strong control over SLA and metrics
• “Resilient, gets things done, adaptable to change” kind of attitude, with capacity for hard work in a relentlessly fast paced environment

Qualifications and experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• Extensive private sector debt collections and debt review experience
• Experience working within a highly regulated collections environment
• Experience in managing a debt collections team with the ability to establish and maintain an efficient and productive working environment based on continuous and effective staff communication 
• Debt collections strategy experience within a customer service environment and ability to take full accountability for the end to end collections process
• Knowledge of general principles and techniques of debt collection work, legal requirements for collection of delinquent accounts and modern office practices and procedures
• Ability to conduct informational interviews; write and speak clearly and effectively; research legal, financial and other records; deal tactfully with customers; compose clear, concise reports and correspondence; establish and maintain accurate records and accounts
• Understand the global enforcement model and work with the legal team in identifying matters for enforcement and preparing matters for handover to legal team
• Strong quantitative skills
• Ability to use skip tracing techniques and work with tracing agents internationally
• Master of Microsoft Office, Workflow, SLAs and process maps

Experience that would be nice to have 

• Legal background or exposure
• Experience /or familiarity with UK regulation around consumer credit would be highly advantageous
• Start-up experience - comfortable with ambiguity, able to wear lots of hats, and adapt easily. If you haven’t worked in a start-up before; you need to show us that you have a real desire and potential to be successful in a non-corporate company.