When a financial institution’s customers are financially healthy, everyone wins. SpringFour, an award-winning social impact fintech and a Certified B Corporation, connects financial institutions’ customers with resources that help them make their payments and get back on their feet.
With a digital-based platform of more than 20,000 vetted financial resources, SpringFour helps banks, financial institutions, loan servicers, employers, and nonprofits connect their customers to the support they need to repay loans, reduce expenses, and get back on track. This benefits both customers and institutions, increasing repayment rates and increasing customer engagement and satisfaction by providing them with the support they need.
In 2020 alone, SpringFour partners made more than 3.2 million referrals to financial assistance resources. Today, SpringFour works with some of the biggest brands in the industry, including BMO Harris Bank, Capital One, M&T Bank, OppFi, Avant, Enova, and Elevate, helping them to deliver financial resources to customers in need, and has been recognized in American Banker, Forbes, and many other media outlets.
Personal Experience Became a Mission
SpringFour CEO Rochelle Gorey began her career in the nonprofit world, leading policy and innovation on housing and community reinvestment issues and later as a consultant where she worked with a large mortgage servicer. Inspiration struck when she learned that mortgage collection agents had access to foreclosure timelines across the country. Gorey realized that if servicers had the ability to look up that kind of information while on calls with delinquent borrowers, they should also be able to look up resources that could assist their customers and address the “why” behind their inability to pay. Gorey knew what a difference these kinds of resources could make for a family in need – she had grown up in a low-income household herself.
Now, Gorey knew that there were countless more government and nonprofit resources available that could ease the burdens of financial hardship – if only they could be made easily available to customers. Gorey believed that if we could address the underlying causes behind a person’s inability to pay, they could begin to pay and even save again. And that’s precisely what SpringFour has focused on since its founding, building a technology solution that would make it easy and efficient for lenders to connect their borrowers with resources that could address their financial needs and challenges. As a result, SpringFour has changed the way the industry responds and communicates with borrowers in distress.
In a survey conducted by SpringFour and Competiscan in July of 2020, 30% of consumers said they weren’t able to pay their monthly bills, and 48% of low and moderate-income families said they were in need of more than $4,000 in an emergency fund. Many aren’t sure where to turn for resources that can help, but 83% of households are interested in receiving financial health resources from a source they already trust – their banks.
How It Works
Today, SpringFour offers several ways in which a company can improve the loan performance and financial health of its borrowers and customers. The S4pro tool is designed for employees and agents who work in customer service, collections, and loan servicing, who speak to customers facing financial challenges each day. With SpringFour at their fingertips, they can provide customers with referrals to financial assistance resources in real time. S4direct is a consumer-facing, self-service tool that delivers personalized results and can be embedded on a company’s website or mobile app.
These vetted resources span more than 25 categories, including food assistance, employment services, utilities savings, and immigration and tax assistance.
A Win-Win for All
As Gorey and her team built the SpringFour platform, they kept a set of principles in mind: They would never take money from a struggling consumer, never put ads in front of them, and never charge an organization that provides financial resources to be on the platform. In doing so, they have become a trusted, independent source of financial resources that the financial services industry depends on to assist their borrowers. They still keep that promise – and consumers are often pleasantly surprised that their lender is offering help.
One borrower who’d fallen behind on an auto loan told the collections representative that, because of the referral he received, he found new employment and would be able to make his payments.
Ben Schack, Head US Digital Partnerships, BMO Financial Group said, “SpringFour has changed the way we are engaging with our customers who are kind of in a moment of truth in their financial life, and really changed the nature of that interaction and the way that we are engaging with them for the better.”
SpringFour’s Response – and Growth – During the Pandemic
Demand for SpringFour intensified with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which ground the economy to a halt and threw many people’s finances into disarray. Fortunately, SpringFour was uniquely positioned to help. The team researched and vetted organizations around the country and built out three new COVID-19-specific categories for clients – financial assistance, food insecurity, and employment services. In 2020, referrals grew by 200%, and 91% of users agreed that referrals from SpringFour helped reduce their expenses.
“Helping people isn’t just a nice thing to do. It’s the right thing to do,” said Gorey. “Financial resources exist to help, and people in crisis deserve the information they need to access assistance and get back on their feet. When customers are financially healthy, we see the business impact – it’s a win-win for everyone.”
