Case Studies

Case Study: Digital-First Collections Transformation for a Leading Australian Digital Bank

Transformation Overview

We partnered with a leading Australian digital bank to transform its early-stage collections into a fully digital-led, compliant and agile operating model. By combining automated, behaviour-driven digital outreach with onshore specialist support for complex and sensitive cases, the program delivered engagement and cure performance well above industry benchmarks, while aligning seamlessly with the bank’s mobile-first customer experience.

Customer Context

Our client is a leading Australian digital bank, built around a mobile-first customer experience and known for fast, intuitive, technology-led banking. Maintaining that experience through every stage of the customer lifecycle, including collections, is central to how the bank protects its brand and its customer relationships.

Challenge

The bank needed a faster and more consistent early-stage collections model. Digital reminders were manually triggered, workflows could not be updated quickly when repayment behaviour shifted, and compliance checks required manual oversight. This caused delays in early outreach and variation in cure performance.

The bank sought a partner to build a fully digital-led, compliant and agile collections environment that aligned to its mobile-first customer experience.

Solution

We designed a digital-first sequencing model that prioritised branded SMS and email, directing customers to secure self-service pathways. Automated data feeds created a single customer view, allowing outreach to be driven by behaviour and arrears stage. Digital messages were timed precisely and configured to reflect the bank’s tone and customer-experience expectations.

Complex customers, hardship cases and non-responsive accounts were transferred to onshore specialists for voice support, ensuring sensitive conversations were handled accurately and in line with financial-services standards.

The program was underpinned by strong operational controls and regulatory oversight, combining real-time quality assurance, joint performance governance, automated compliance safeguards and end-to-end auditability. Contact strategies were systematically enforced to meet customer and regulatory requirements, while hardship and complaint handling remained aligned to financial services obligations throughout.

Outcome

Over the first ten months of operation, the program delivered performance consistently above industry benchmarks across every core measure.

• 82% digital engagement rate – well above the 45–65% typical of banking digital programs

• 36% early-stage cure rate (1–30 days past due) – against 20–30% for similar portfolios

• 62% right-party contact on voice – exceeding the industry range of 50–60%

The transformation established a scalable, digital-first collections model that combined automation, intelligent workflow design and specialist customer support to deliver strong performance at scale. By orchestrating digital and assisted channels as a single customer journey, the bank improved engagement, strengthened operational efficiency and maintained consistent collections outcomes as volumes evolved.