PrinSIX Technologies: helping lenders gain a deep understanding of their customers

Founded by the former executive team of a sub-prime lender, PrinSIX Technologies helps lenders offer improved digital customer journeys while delivering more profitable and better quality customers at reduced regulatory risks.

We spoke to Julian Graham-Rack, CEO at PrinSIX, about the company's global growth ambitions and how the UK market is helping underpin this international expansion.

What does your company do?

We came out of the world of consumer credit as the regulatory environment in the UK was becoming very demanding. This new environment requires you to get a deep understanding of the customer and assess them for a whole variety of things like affordability, suitability, responsible lending and vulnerability. We, the founders of our company, found this very demanding when we were running a lending business and had to be very innovative to meet both compliance and commercial objectives. That experience was the genesis of PrinSIX Technologies.

PrinSIX is a platform designed to help lenders gain a deep understanding of their customers. The paradigm shift with our platform is that all the journeys we do in terms of digital onboarding are personalised and they change in real time.

With our platform you don't have fixed forms or fixed questions, so you don't need to ask everybody everything. You only ask a specific individual what you need to ask as you understand their circumstances, so the customer gets the shortest and best possible journey. The company gets reduced regulatory risk and far more efficiency with reduced customer drop outs.

A key benefit of our platform is that you can constantly test and learn and continually optimise the customer journey and thereby improve both conversion rates and customer outcomes.”

Tell us about your UK and global operations.

We created the business about 18 months ago when we left our previous lending business. We remain small and agile and have seven core people. We have built a lot of partnerships recently with large and small technology services businesses within financial services, all of who have experienced first-hand the difficulty of creating and refining regulated customer journeys.

We are domiciled in Leeds in Yorkshire. We love Leeds as a place. There are an awful lot of technology businesses and it is a quite large financial services centre.

A lot of our development as a company is through partnerships. We see that as a very effective way to grow quickly and efficiently. There is an awful lot of connection to Europe via Leeds simply via the depth of networks that sit in Leeds within financial services.

A lot of our development as a company is through partnerships. We see that as a very effective way to grow quickly and efficiently. There is an awful lot of connection to Europe via Leeds simply via the depth of networks that sit in Leeds within financial services

What are the main benefits to being based in the UK?

The regulatory environment in the UK has definitely been a plus for us. It is demanding so you have to be good and that by its nature helps to breed innovation. The regulator is also very open to innovation. We were part of the City of London Corporation and the Financial Conduct Authority's first digital sandbox which is an example of the support that both the regulator and the City of London give to innovation within the UK.

The UK regulator clearly has a strong reputation internationally which is inevitably helpful to us in the conversations that we have as our clients are regulated businesses.

There is also good talent in the UK, particularly in the areas of technology and data analytics. Fintechs need both these skillsets. This is important as technology and sophisticated analytics lie at the heart of any successful fintech business.

There is good talent in the UK, particularly in the areas of technology and data analytics. Fintechs need both these skillsets. This is important as technology and sophisticated analytics lie at the heart of any successful fintech business

Tell us about your company's growth ambitions.

In terms of growth, we will focus predominantly on western markets but we will always be relatively lean as a business, partly given our partnership model. Our growth is being driven by a number of important trends.

The UK regulator is increasingly focused on this concept called vulnerability – making sure that vulnerable customers are treated properly. That is driving what we are doing, as understanding the many types of vulnerabilities requires a deep understanding of customers.

Speed of innovation is also driving what we do. Customer journeys have to quickly adapt to change to keep up with all the innovation that is happening be that internal change, regulatory change or technical change. You don't want the customer journeys to be the bit that slows everything down, but the current dependency on a classic technical development cycle just takes too long. Journeys must be owned and configured without the need for development.

Open Banking is another important trend as it gives a much deeper and richer insight into customers. This explosion of data and data insights on customers drives you to ask more questions. This enables us to keep improving our digital conversations with customers.