Nostrum Group launches Virtual Finance platform

Richard Carter, Nostrum Group’s Chief Executive

Nostrum Group, a loan management software provider, launched its new Virtual Finance lending platform at Finovate Europe 2015 conference in London in February.

The new platform offers a fully digital account management experience and interacts with customers in a conversational style to help them carry out day-to-day tasks in their loan account. The interface replicates dealing with a real agent and offers a personalised experience that is markedly different to the typical stilted interactions customers are used to having when managing accounts online.

Richard Carter, Nostrum Group’s Chief Executive, said: “We conducted a piece of consumer research last year which confirmed what Nostrum has suspected for some time; the move to online borrowing is not just inevitable, it is already taking place. But at the same time, banks have not kept pace with the consumer’s media use preferences. Recent industry research has shown the functionality and user experience of the top five banks’ mobile apps is not meeting consumer expectations.”

Research of over 2000 consumers, conducted by Nostrum Group late last year, concluded that consumer communication preferences, particularly smartphone adoption, and a desire to ‘own the relationship’ are creating the right conditions for borrowers to manage the entire transaction from application to the final repayment online without any human interaction.

Mr. Carter continued: “The launch of our Virtual Finance platform signals a new dawn for the lending industry. This is an automated system that’s been designed for the customer’s benefit, not simply to make a lender’s operations more efficient. In recent years we have invested heavily in user experience and customer engagement and I believe the interface we have created sets a new benchmark for the lending industry.”