Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Evan Sparks (00:02):
From the American Bankers Association, this is the
A BA Banking Journal podcast.
Welcome back.
today's episode ispresented by Agri Access.
i'm Evan Sparks, and I'm delighted tobe bringing you a conversation about
how we improve our ability to get peopleinto America's credit economy and make
sure that they are building credit.
Able to participate inour financial ecosystem.
(00:24):
It's a critical part, just like we do talkabout, talk a lot in this podcast about
financial inclusion on the deposit side.
There's a lot of opportunities forfinancial inclusion on the credit side
and here to talk with me about that.
Today, our two executives atSynchrony Bank, we have Max Axler.
He is Chief Credit Officer at Synchrony.
Hi Max, welcome to the show.
Max Axler (00:43):
Hey, thank you for having me.
Evan Sparks (00:45):
As well as Anita Chalkley, who is SVP, senior Vice President
for Credit Acquisition Strategy.
Anita, welcome to the show.
Anita Chalkley (00:52):
Thank you so much.
Evan Sparks (00:54):
Before we get started on the digging into the, the meat
of the conversation here, could youtell us a little bit about how you
got into banking and your careerjourneys in in banking so far?
Anita Chalkley (01:05):
Sure I can jump on in.
So I've been with companycoming up on 25 years.
I started with a bank inAustralia that was acquired by ge.
And GE later became Synchrony.
An interesting story.
I actually started as a part-timecollector on the phones and kind
of made my way through operationseventually into credit risk, and
(01:26):
been in credit risk for 20 years,and now you can't get me out of it.
Max Axler (01:33):
It's the best practice.
Anita started in collections.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I, I've been part of GEand Synchrony for 25 years.
Spent a lot of time in finance, was theCFO of a GE business and helped come
back to lead the IPO from a financialstandpoint and been credit for better part
of eight years in inside this business.
Evan Sparks (01:51):
Anita, I am curious, when, when did you make the move
from Australia to the United States?
Anita Chalkley (01:56):
We moved in 2009, which obviously was a very interesting
time in the economic cycle.
Both my husband and I moved as adults.
And actually that's one of thereasons why I'm very passionate
about the topic we're talkingabout today on credit and visibles.
Because moving as an adult.
In Australia, we had a house, wehad car loans, we had credit cards.
(02:20):
And when we came to the states,we basically lost all of our
credit history and had to startfrom scratch as credit invisible.
So that presented quite a challenge interms of even, you know, putting down
deposits for a rental apartment, gettingelectricity connected you know, car
insurance rates were all impacted, so.
It's a topic that's very near and dearto my heart and why, you know, part
(02:44):
of the reason I love my job currentlyand working on solving some of the
financial inclusion problems we have.
Evan Sparks (02:51):
Let's dig into that a little more.
You know, what, what, how did you,how did, for, in your experience,
how did you overcome some ofthose challenges with, with your
transition here to the United States?
And obviously lots of people havechallenges with credit invisibility, but
what was your approach and how does thatinform what you're doing at Synchrony?
Anita Chalkley (03:08):
Yeah, so when we moved over 16 years ago, we went more
the traditional route and probably,you know, one of the only routes
that was available back then, whichwas having a secured credit card.
So where you, you know, put a depositdown of your own cash at a bank and they,
you know, give you the same credit limit.
In return to use as a credit card andthrough on time payments, controlling
(03:33):
utilization, you're able to eventuallybuild your credit score in that way.
These days there are, you know,fortunately more advances in being
able to help Credit Invisibles.
And some of that work we are doingwith the OCC in a private and public
partnership through the round tablefor economic access and change where
(03:57):
we're now able to use aggregatebank account data to help approve
some credit and visibles as well.
In addition to that, at Synchronywe are also getting into customer
consented cashflow data where we'reable to give customers an opportunity
to opt in to share their bank accountdata by connecting their bank accounts.
(04:19):
So I, it's really exciting to seethat there's more pathways opening up
compared to, you know, you go back that16 years ago where really your only
option was to put down some cash and,and slowly build up a credit history.
Evan Sparks (04:32):
Yeah.
So so are the stories here areintersecting with you know, your
story and the Synchrony story.
So max, can you give you, giveour listeners a bit of an overview
for those who are not as familiar?
What sync, what's Synchrony storyand how and how does its business
model fit in with this mission andpurpose of promoting credit access?
Max Axler (04:54):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, as we were IPOing thecompany, we were joking that
we're probably one of the largestcompanies nobody's ever heard of.
'cause we were inside ge.
And, and so, you know, this companyhas been around almost 11 years.
So we IPO'ed a little than 11 yearsago 460,000 partner locations.
A lot of names, you know, you know,Amazon, JC Penney, Sam's Club, PayPal,
(05:19):
Venmo you know, the list goes on and on.
And over 140 million trade lines.
So we've touched a lot of consumers inthe US and, and so just massive scale.
And so as we think about the businessmodel, we're primarily a, a business to
business to consumer lending business.
We're generally not direct to consumer.
(05:40):
And so we go and offer businessoffer credit through our partners
networks and, and they help us acquireaccounts and allow us to make some
progress on financial inclusion.
That's what we're talking about today.
And, and so we see the entire breadthof America applying for our cards,
50 plus million applications a year.
It allows us to have goodintelligence on who the consumers are.
(06:04):
And try and we'll get into a little bitof synchrony prism, I suspect, which is
really about how we add context to who theconsumer is and what they're trying to do.
And so, you know, we, we've been onthe Prism journey since 2018, which
was really disrupting how a traditionalunderwriting decision's been made.
Evan Sparks (06:23):
Today's episode is presented by Agri Access, with
national reach and local focus.
Agri Access helps lenders expandaccess to capital through loan
participation, flexible lease options,and embedded lending solutions from
large banks to rural institutions.
Agri Access helps grow your portfolio,serve more producers, and lead
with confidence in today's market.
Learn more at.
RI A GI access.com.
(06:46):
Again, that's a GI access.com.
And thanks again to Agri Accessfor sponsoring this episode.
So to continue the conversation, Iwould love to learn a little bit more
about customer consented cash flow.
You know, we, we know so much about that.
You talked that, you talked aboutAnita you know, the traditional model
of, you know, you get a credit scorebased on your repayment history for
(07:10):
a loan, but we've heard talk aboutthe use and of the usefulness of
alternative data, paying differentkinds of, you know, bills movements
out in and out of your bank account.
And how does that, how does thatfit into the way that you and you
analyze credit eligibility, creditworthiness for an individual?
Anita Chalkley (07:33):
Yeah.
So customer consented cash flowis, has been, you know, a great
addition to our entire suite of data.
So as Max mentioned, we steppedinto Synchrony Prism, which
allows us to utilize thousandsof data points in real time.
And some of those aretraditional credit scores.
Others more alternate information.
(07:55):
But being able to see the customer inmore of a holistic manner where customer
consent to cashflow really plays intothat is, you know, there's anywhere,
I mean, estimates vary, but there'sanywhere up to 50 million Americans
that do not have a traditional orusable credit score at the bureaus.
So some of them may have not had access tocredit for whatever reason that might be.
(08:18):
They might be young andentering the system.
They might be immigrants, they mighthave just been excluded from the system.
Or they might have very limiteddata at the, at the credit bureaus.
What customer consented Cashflow enablesyou to do is to see how, as you mentioned,
they're managing their inflows, outflowsyou know, how they're transacting, how
(08:40):
they're saving and adding that context in.
Amongst, you know, every other data pointthat we have about the consumer that's
applying to make a more robust creditdecision and ultimately include more
people into the financial ecosystem,which, you know, helps everybody.
Max Axler (08:59):
Yeah.
I think just to touch on what Anita wastalking about and why it's so important
to us, Evan, you, you know, if you'relocked out of the, the financial system,
you know you're doing different things.
Payday lending, secure.
Cards, et cetera.
You know, payday lending, the averagea PR on a payday loan is 391%.
Right?
It is really expensive tobe poor in this country.
(09:20):
And so we think about financialinclusion and it pairs, you know,
with our core values of who weare as a company, which is being
responsible lenders and helping people.
We believe that.
I, I think, Anita, you know, youtalked a little bit about Project
REACh and you talked a little bitabout consented cash flow lending.
We were the first company in bothregards to offer in a retail setting,
(09:44):
but I think what what we get reallyexcited about is the performance.
So I need to maybe spend just asecond on what we've seen with
Project REACh and taking creditinvisibles and their scores over time.
Anita Chalkley (09:57):
Yeah, that's a great point, max.
So we've been involved in ProjectREACh for several years now you know,
with our peer banks and using thataggregated bank data to underwrite, you
know, credit invisible customers and.
Now that we've been in it for, forsome time, we're able to monitor, you
know, what happens to these people oncewe give them their first credit card.
(10:20):
And the results are amazing.
We see that more than 50% of the consumersreach a prime plus, prime or better
credit score within 12 months, and ifwe track that further, they maintain
it over the coming period as well.
So that's really changing thelives for these consumers and
(10:40):
opening up access across morefinancial products in the ecosystem.
Max Axler (10:46):
I would say separately to the point Anita was making, you know,
the 50% is incredibly compelling, right?
Those are people that had no score,the bureaus had never seen them before.
And within 12 months, they havea, you know, a prime plus score.
So now they're having a abilityto access different types of
loans, other credit cards.
(11:08):
Perhaps auto loans maybe even mortgageloans, personal loans, student loans
so they can get going from a, afinancial standpoint, you know, the
truth is that 50% could be higher.
We wanted the data to lead us, you know,it was the first time we had access
to the data, and so we started prettyexpansively and we wanted to learn.
From the data.
And so, you know, there's otherpartners, other issuers that probably
(11:30):
have higher percentage than 50%.
But it was a little bit ofthe basis of how we started.
We wanted to understand wherethe cutoff was and what was the
most meaningful data inside thatthose, those cashflow attributes
to make a decision going forward.
Evan Sparks (11:45):
Yeah.
With the with your business clientsfor whom you're issuing these cards, I
expect this is gonna increase the poolof clients that they have who can engage
with them through these programs thatdrive revenue, both for them and for you.
What's the what's kind of the economicimpact that you've seen for your
clients and for for, for businessesfrom the, your ability to expand
the expand access to these cards?
Max Axler (12:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's allowing us to convert moreaccounts, so more applicants that
historically, under a traditionalunderwriting sentence, you say, "Hey, I
can't, I can't responsibly lend to thispopulation." Now we're able to do that.
And so it's obviously increasing sales.
One of the unique things about Synchronyagain, given the business to business
to consumer lending model is for ourlarge partners, we have retailer share
(12:30):
arrangements, which you can see insideour income statement we're, I, I think the
only company that actually breaks it out.
And that allows us and our partnersto align our incentives around how
we responsible to lend to people.
And so.
You know, it's great for our, our partnersbecause they're converting a sale that
day, and it's great for us becausewe're helping solve a huge issue in
(12:51):
this country around financial inclusion.
Anita Chalkley (12:55):
And I would, I would add to that for our clients,
it's work that matters to them.
If you're thinking about, you know, thetypes of industries we serve, whether
it is someone who has a flat tire andneeds to get a new set of tires to
get to work, or whether it's the momdoing back to school shopping at one
of our retail partners, or you know,someone who has an emergency at the vet.
(13:18):
And needs their dog tohave emergency surgery.
They're really, you know, placesthat are impacting people's
lives and our retail partners.
And our clients reallycare about their customers.
They're not just numbers.
So more than the economic impact, we arehearing so much from them that this work
matters and they wanna hear more about it.
(13:40):
Yeah.
Evan Sparks (13:41):
This has been a really fascinating conversation.
It's, it's exciting that y'allhave been able to able to do this.
Is there anything I didn't ask thatyou'd like to share about before
we close our conversation today?
Max Axler (13:50):
Yeah, we, I think, touched on Synchrony prism a little bit.
And, you know, we probably didn't spendenough time given just the constraints.
But you know, what Synchrony Prismwas, was an idea that you could
disrupt the traditional underwritingdecision that's being made.
And we, we started in 2018 we startedinvesting and really putting around.
(14:10):
And the premise was moreand better data, real time.
And so the more and betterdata is an analytical problem.
The real time is a technology problem,and so we married our credit analytics
teams with our technology teams to createthe first agile train inside the company.
In 2018 and it's carried on since.
And so, you know, Synchrony Prismhas allowed us to, as Anita talked
(14:33):
about, add a bunch of attributes.
You know, we've changed an applicantfrom a credit score to an array of facts
using up to 9,000 attributes insidea couple seconds to make a decision,
and that doesn't even contemplatethe things we do around fraud.
Et cetera.
And so it's a tremendous amount of dataand it provides important context in
(14:53):
how we make an underwriting decision.
How we look at someone that maybedoesn't have a perfect credit score,
but we have a bunch of history on them,leveraging alternative data, our partners
data in certain instances, and ourown data, the 140 million trade lines.
To change our view of the creditworthiness of that customer.
And it's increased approvalrates, it's lowered losses, it's
(15:14):
driven growth for our partners andimprove the customer experience.
And so it's incredibly powerful.
You know, as we think about movingforward, we think about kind of the
second version of Prism 2.0 whichis really about how we leverage
capabilities to allow consumers to giveus more data, to make better decisions.
So look at the placesmaybe we're declining.
(15:36):
Put them into our underwritingbox because they're, they're
helping us make a decision.
I need to talk about consumer consentand cash flow, but there's other
capabilities that consumers can help usmake better decisions, whether they're
signing up for autopay, whether they'rewilling to put down down payment.
These are all really importantcapabilities that we've deployed
that allow consumers to make iteasier for us to make a credit
(15:59):
decision and approve them.
Evan Sparks (16:02):
Great.
Well, Anita Max, thank you somuch for being on the show today.
Hey, thanks Evan.
Anita Chalkley (16:08):
Thank you.
Evan Sparks (16:09):
For our listeners, you can find this in previous episodes
at aba.com/banking journal podcast.
You can also find us on any of yourfavorite podcast apps or platforms.
Thanks again to Agri Accessfor sponsoring this episode.
Thanks so much for listening, andwe'll be back with you again very soon.
From the American Bankers Association, this is the
A BA Banking Journal podcast.
Welcome back.
today's episode ispresented by Agri Access.
i'm Evan Sparks, and I'm delighted tobe bringing you a conversation about
how we improve our ability to get peopleinto America's credit economy and make
sure that they are building credit.
Able to participate inour financial ecosystem.
(00:24):
It's a critical part, just like we do talkabout, talk a lot in this podcast about
financial inclusion on the deposit side.
There's a lot of opportunities forfinancial inclusion on the credit side
and here to talk with me about that.
Today, our two executives atSynchrony Bank, we have Max Axler.
He is Chief Credit Officer at Synchrony.
Hi Max, welcome to the show.
Max Axler (00:43):
Hey, thank you for having me.
Evan Sparks (00:45):
As well as Anita Chalkley, who is SVP, senior Vice President
for Credit Acquisition Strategy.
Anita, welcome to the show.
Anita Chalkley (00:52):
Thank you so much.
Evan Sparks (00:54):
Before we get started on the digging into the, the meat
of the conversation here, could youtell us a little bit about how you
got into banking and your careerjourneys in in banking so far?
Anita Chalkley (01:05):
Sure I can jump on in.
So I've been with companycoming up on 25 years.
I started with a bank inAustralia that was acquired by ge.
And GE later became Synchrony.
An interesting story.
I actually started as a part-timecollector on the phones and kind
of made my way through operationseventually into credit risk, and
(01:26):
been in credit risk for 20 years,and now you can't get me out of it.
Max Axler (01:33):
It's the best practice.
Anita started in collections.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I, I've been part of GEand Synchrony for 25 years.
Spent a lot of time in finance, was theCFO of a GE business and helped come
back to lead the IPO from a financialstandpoint and been credit for better part
of eight years in inside this business.
Evan Sparks (01:51):
Anita, I am curious, when, when did you make the move
from Australia to the United States?
Anita Chalkley (01:56):
We moved in 2009, which obviously was a very interesting
time in the economic cycle.
Both my husband and I moved as adults.
And actually that's one of thereasons why I'm very passionate
about the topic we're talkingabout today on credit and visibles.
Because moving as an adult.
In Australia, we had a house, wehad car loans, we had credit cards.
(02:20):
And when we came to the states,we basically lost all of our
credit history and had to startfrom scratch as credit invisible.
So that presented quite a challenge interms of even, you know, putting down
deposits for a rental apartment, gettingelectricity connected you know, car
insurance rates were all impacted, so.
It's a topic that's very near and dearto my heart and why, you know, part
(02:44):
of the reason I love my job currentlyand working on solving some of the
financial inclusion problems we have.
Evan Sparks (02:51):
Let's dig into that a little more.
You know, what, what, how did you,how did, for, in your experience,
how did you overcome some ofthose challenges with, with your
transition here to the United States?
And obviously lots of people havechallenges with credit invisibility, but
what was your approach and how does thatinform what you're doing at Synchrony?
Anita Chalkley (03:08):
Yeah, so when we moved over 16 years ago, we went more
the traditional route and probably,you know, one of the only routes
that was available back then, whichwas having a secured credit card.
So where you, you know, put a depositdown of your own cash at a bank and they,
you know, give you the same credit limit.
In return to use as a credit card andthrough on time payments, controlling
(03:33):
utilization, you're able to eventuallybuild your credit score in that way.
These days there are, you know,fortunately more advances in being
able to help Credit Invisibles.
And some of that work we are doingwith the OCC in a private and public
partnership through the round tablefor economic access and change where
(03:57):
we're now able to use aggregatebank account data to help approve
some credit and visibles as well.
In addition to that, at Synchronywe are also getting into customer
consented cashflow data where we'reable to give customers an opportunity
to opt in to share their bank accountdata by connecting their bank accounts.
(04:19):
So I, it's really exciting to seethat there's more pathways opening up
compared to, you know, you go back that16 years ago where really your only
option was to put down some cash and,and slowly build up a credit history.
Evan Sparks (04:32):
Yeah.
So so are the stories here areintersecting with you know, your
story and the Synchrony story.
So max, can you give you, giveour listeners a bit of an overview
for those who are not as familiar?
What sync, what's Synchrony storyand how and how does its business
model fit in with this mission andpurpose of promoting credit access?
Max Axler (04:54):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, as we were IPOing thecompany, we were joking that
we're probably one of the largestcompanies nobody's ever heard of.
'cause we were inside ge.
And, and so, you know, this companyhas been around almost 11 years.
So we IPO'ed a little than 11 yearsago 460,000 partner locations.
A lot of names, you know, you know,Amazon, JC Penney, Sam's Club, PayPal,
(05:19):
Venmo you know, the list goes on and on.
And over 140 million trade lines.
So we've touched a lot of consumers inthe US and, and so just massive scale.
And so as we think about the businessmodel, we're primarily a, a business to
business to consumer lending business.
We're generally not direct to consumer.
(05:40):
And so we go and offer businessoffer credit through our partners
networks and, and they help us acquireaccounts and allow us to make some
progress on financial inclusion.
That's what we're talking about today.
And, and so we see the entire breadthof America applying for our cards,
50 plus million applications a year.
It allows us to have goodintelligence on who the consumers are.
(06:04):
And try and we'll get into a little bitof synchrony prism, I suspect, which is
really about how we add context to who theconsumer is and what they're trying to do.
And so, you know, we, we've been onthe Prism journey since 2018, which
was really disrupting how a traditionalunderwriting decision's been made.
Evan Sparks (06:23):
Today's episode is presented by Agri Access, with
national reach and local focus.
Agri Access helps lenders expandaccess to capital through loan
participation, flexible lease options,and embedded lending solutions from
large banks to rural institutions.
Agri Access helps grow your portfolio,serve more producers, and lead
with confidence in today's market.
Learn more at.
RI A GI access.com.
(06:46):
Again, that's a GI access.com.
And thanks again to Agri Accessfor sponsoring this episode.
So to continue the conversation, Iwould love to learn a little bit more
about customer consented cash flow.
You know, we, we know so much about that.
You talked that, you talked aboutAnita you know, the traditional model
of, you know, you get a credit scorebased on your repayment history for
(07:10):
a loan, but we've heard talk aboutthe use and of the usefulness of
alternative data, paying differentkinds of, you know, bills movements
out in and out of your bank account.
And how does that, how does thatfit into the way that you and you
analyze credit eligibility, creditworthiness for an individual?
Anita Chalkley (07:33):
Yeah.
So customer consented cash flowis, has been, you know, a great
addition to our entire suite of data.
So as Max mentioned, we steppedinto Synchrony Prism, which
allows us to utilize thousandsof data points in real time.
And some of those aretraditional credit scores.
Others more alternate information.
(07:55):
But being able to see the customer inmore of a holistic manner where customer
consent to cashflow really plays intothat is, you know, there's anywhere,
I mean, estimates vary, but there'sanywhere up to 50 million Americans
that do not have a traditional orusable credit score at the bureaus.
So some of them may have not had access tocredit for whatever reason that might be.
(08:18):
They might be young andentering the system.
They might be immigrants, they mighthave just been excluded from the system.
Or they might have very limiteddata at the, at the credit bureaus.
What customer consented Cashflow enablesyou to do is to see how, as you mentioned,
they're managing their inflows, outflowsyou know, how they're transacting, how
(08:40):
they're saving and adding that context in.
Amongst, you know, every other data pointthat we have about the consumer that's
applying to make a more robust creditdecision and ultimately include more
people into the financial ecosystem,which, you know, helps everybody.
Max Axler (08:59):
Yeah.
I think just to touch on what Anita wastalking about and why it's so important
to us, Evan, you, you know, if you'relocked out of the, the financial system,
you know you're doing different things.
Payday lending, secure.
Cards, et cetera.
You know, payday lending, the averagea PR on a payday loan is 391%.
Right?
It is really expensive tobe poor in this country.
(09:20):
And so we think about financialinclusion and it pairs, you know,
with our core values of who weare as a company, which is being
responsible lenders and helping people.
We believe that.
I, I think, Anita, you know, youtalked a little bit about Project
REACh and you talked a little bitabout consented cash flow lending.
We were the first company in bothregards to offer in a retail setting,
(09:44):
but I think what what we get reallyexcited about is the performance.
So I need to maybe spend just asecond on what we've seen with
Project REACh and taking creditinvisibles and their scores over time.
Anita Chalkley (09:57):
Yeah, that's a great point, max.
So we've been involved in ProjectREACh for several years now you know,
with our peer banks and using thataggregated bank data to underwrite, you
know, credit invisible customers and.
Now that we've been in it for, forsome time, we're able to monitor, you
know, what happens to these people oncewe give them their first credit card.
(10:20):
And the results are amazing.
We see that more than 50% of the consumersreach a prime plus, prime or better
credit score within 12 months, and ifwe track that further, they maintain
it over the coming period as well.
So that's really changing thelives for these consumers and
(10:40):
opening up access across morefinancial products in the ecosystem.
Max Axler (10:46):
I would say separately to the point Anita was making, you know,
the 50% is incredibly compelling, right?
Those are people that had no score,the bureaus had never seen them before.
And within 12 months, they havea, you know, a prime plus score.
So now they're having a abilityto access different types of
loans, other credit cards.
(11:08):
Perhaps auto loans maybe even mortgageloans, personal loans, student loans
so they can get going from a, afinancial standpoint, you know, the
truth is that 50% could be higher.
We wanted the data to lead us, you know,it was the first time we had access
to the data, and so we started prettyexpansively and we wanted to learn.
From the data.
And so, you know, there's otherpartners, other issuers that probably
(11:30):
have higher percentage than 50%.
But it was a little bit ofthe basis of how we started.
We wanted to understand wherethe cutoff was and what was the
most meaningful data inside thatthose, those cashflow attributes
to make a decision going forward.
Evan Sparks (11:45):
Yeah.
With the with your business clientsfor whom you're issuing these cards, I
expect this is gonna increase the poolof clients that they have who can engage
with them through these programs thatdrive revenue, both for them and for you.
What's the what's kind of the economicimpact that you've seen for your
clients and for for, for businessesfrom the, your ability to expand
the expand access to these cards?
Max Axler (12:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's allowing us to convert moreaccounts, so more applicants that
historically, under a traditionalunderwriting sentence, you say, "Hey, I
can't, I can't responsibly lend to thispopulation." Now we're able to do that.
And so it's obviously increasing sales.
One of the unique things about Synchronyagain, given the business to business
to consumer lending model is for ourlarge partners, we have retailer share
(12:30):
arrangements, which you can see insideour income statement we're, I, I think the
only company that actually breaks it out.
And that allows us and our partnersto align our incentives around how
we responsible to lend to people.
And so.
You know, it's great for our, our partnersbecause they're converting a sale that
day, and it's great for us becausewe're helping solve a huge issue in
(12:51):
this country around financial inclusion.
Anita Chalkley (12:55):
And I would, I would add to that for our clients,
it's work that matters to them.
If you're thinking about, you know, thetypes of industries we serve, whether
it is someone who has a flat tire andneeds to get a new set of tires to
get to work, or whether it's the momdoing back to school shopping at one
of our retail partners, or you know,someone who has an emergency at the vet.
(13:18):
And needs their dog tohave emergency surgery.
They're really, you know, placesthat are impacting people's
lives and our retail partners.
And our clients reallycare about their customers.
They're not just numbers.
So more than the economic impact, we arehearing so much from them that this work
matters and they wanna hear more about it.
(13:40):
Yeah.
Evan Sparks (13:41):
This has been a really fascinating conversation.
It's, it's exciting that y'allhave been able to able to do this.
Is there anything I didn't ask thatyou'd like to share about before
we close our conversation today?
Max Axler (13:50):
Yeah, we, I think, touched on Synchrony prism a little bit.
And, you know, we probably didn't spendenough time given just the constraints.
But you know, what Synchrony Prismwas, was an idea that you could
disrupt the traditional underwritingdecision that's being made.
And we, we started in 2018 we startedinvesting and really putting around.
(14:10):
And the premise was moreand better data, real time.
And so the more and betterdata is an analytical problem.
The real time is a technology problem,and so we married our credit analytics
teams with our technology teams to createthe first agile train inside the company.
In 2018 and it's carried on since.
And so, you know, Synchrony Prismhas allowed us to, as Anita talked
(14:33):
about, add a bunch of attributes.
You know, we've changed an applicantfrom a credit score to an array of facts
using up to 9,000 attributes insidea couple seconds to make a decision,
and that doesn't even contemplatethe things we do around fraud.
Et cetera.
And so it's a tremendous amount of dataand it provides important context in
(14:53):
how we make an underwriting decision.
How we look at someone that maybedoesn't have a perfect credit score,
but we have a bunch of history on them,leveraging alternative data, our partners
data in certain instances, and ourown data, the 140 million trade lines.
To change our view of the creditworthiness of that customer.
And it's increased approvalrates, it's lowered losses, it's
(15:14):
driven growth for our partners andimprove the customer experience.
And so it's incredibly powerful.
You know, as we think about movingforward, we think about kind of the
second version of Prism 2.0 whichis really about how we leverage
capabilities to allow consumers to giveus more data, to make better decisions.
So look at the placesmaybe we're declining.
(15:36):
Put them into our underwritingbox because they're, they're
helping us make a decision.
I need to talk about consumer consentand cash flow, but there's other
capabilities that consumers can help usmake better decisions, whether they're
signing up for autopay, whether they'rewilling to put down down payment.
These are all really importantcapabilities that we've deployed
that allow consumers to make iteasier for us to make a credit
(15:59):
decision and approve them.
Evan Sparks (16:02):
Great.
Well, Anita Max, thank you somuch for being on the show today.
Hey, thanks Evan.
Anita Chalkley (16:08):
Thank you.
Evan Sparks (16:09):
For our listeners, you can find this in previous episodes
at aba.com/banking journal podcast.
You can also find us on any of yourfavorite podcast apps or platforms.
Thanks again to Agri Accessfor sponsoring this episode.
Thanks so much for listening, andwe'll be back with you again very soon.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.