If the current pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we depend on each other for in-person contact more than we thought. This is especially true for unbanked and underbanked consumers seeking financial services. Customers obtain credit through store branches, and many of the customer service representatives in the stores have worked with these consumers for years, accepting their payments in person. For consumers seeking a title loan, allowing a look at the car has required an in-person visit to the branch. All of this became upended as state after state issued “stay at home” orders requiring nonessential businesses to close. How do financial services businesses under orders to keep employees home, especially when those employees are key to accept, process or collect payments on consumer loans at a branch, adjust? Just as consumers have scrambled to address their credit needs, money services businesses, payday lenders, installment lenders and title lenders have worked hard to adjust their operations to meet the current challenge.

Financial technology, or FinTech, is the application of an electronic process to a financial service. FinTech is used pre-origination through collections and given the physical distance under which we all currently struggle, attention to areas where fintech can help lessen the gap between you and your customer is warranted.

Originally published in Currents, Spring 2020, a publication of Financial Service Centers of America (FiSCA).