MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The buzz about a potential recession has been overpowered lately by talk about a related warning signal - delinquent payments. TransUnion predicts that over the course of 2023, serious credit card delinquencies will rise by 24% to levels not seen since 2010.Common wisdom has it that today's delinquencies are due to inflation.The surprising reason for missed payments and credit delinquencies (and it's not inflation)The Motley Fool warned consumers are using credit to cover "higher living costs." USA Today's analysis of the most recent New York Federal Reserve Bank Quarterly Report on Household Debt said, "But as prices remain stubbornly high, [Americans are] also having trouble making payments on time."Is that it? Is inflation really the cause of increased delinquent payments? Or could it be something else?Prodigal is the pioneer of consumer finance intelligence, using AI to support borrowing and lending organizations in improving processes and customer experience. Rising consumer complaints, and banking and lending's inability to capture and manage them effectively, tell us the system needs reinvention.Having analyzed over 250 million consumer finance calls, Prodigal has a unique ability to deliver insight about individual borrowing and repayment, and in the case of consumer delinquencies, that insight upends traditional thinking.A random sample of calls from two of Prodigal's largest customers offers surprising insight into the reasons consumers become delinquent.Here were the top five reasons borrowers gave for late and missed payments:Unemployment Bankruptcy Divorce Other payment obligations Medical conditionsOf those top five delinquency reasons, the only one that can directly be attributed to inflation would be "other payment obligations."The other four are much more interesting - and complicated - stories. Bankruptcy is not a single event, but a series of problems leading someone to file for relief.Unemployment, especially in this labor market, is also complex - there's no lack of jobs, after all. But someone could be fired, become delinquent on their car payment, lose the car, and then be unable to find a new job because of a lack of transportation.And divorce and medical issues are similarly human stories. Is divorce a cause of financial pressures, or a result? Are medical conditions a reason for delinquency, or are they the cause of unemployment and bankruptcy?What Prodigal's data reveals is that while inflation can be a contributing factor to late or missed payments, it's not the only - or even the most prominent - one on people's minds at the moment.And without that insight, lenders looking for repayment will miss out on useful intelligence that can help their customer service representatives support customers in finding the best options to repay their debt and achieve financial stability.About ProdigalProdigal is the pioneer of consumer finance intelligence

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and ATLANTA, May 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Revenue Cycle Associates , the leader in outsourcing solutions to enhance healthcare Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) and accounts receivable management (ARM), has partnered with Prodigal, the pioneer of consumer finance intelligence, to elevate patient experience and improve clients' bottom lines.Revenue Cycle Associates Connects with Prodigal to Drive RCM OutcomesSince 2005, Revenue Cycle Associates has used their RCM expertise to create value-oriented revenue cycle strategies and streamline accounts receivable to increase cash flow and boost financial results while enhancing their clients' brand images.Medical payments and debt continue to be a hot topic, meaning Revenue Cycle Associates' work is high profile, in addition to being central to their clients' businesses. Ensuring they stay at the forefront of their industry is vital.By adding Prodigal ProNotes and ProVoice, Revenue Cycle Associates is modernizing workflows and opening the door to increasing their collectors' efficiency and performance."Our commitment to improving the patient experience on behalf of our clients leads us to look for innovative ways to support our collectors so they can achieve the best outcomes for everyone," said Mark Craig, Revenue Cycle Associates CEO and Founder. "Prodigal's solutions let us do that by using smart automation to allow us to focus on what matters - people."By implementing ProNotes , Revenue Cycle Associates will be able to reduce after-call wrap time and improve collectors' productivity and in-call focus.Using Prodigal's AI Intent Engine, which is trained on more than 250 million consumer finance calls, ProNotes summarizes and standardizes call notes to provide consistency and clarity.And Revenue Cycle Associates has chosen to use ProVoice to help with collector training, minimizing agent variability and improving interaction quality.Rather than managers manually listening to calls, ProVoice analyzes complete conversations, tagging and scoring calls to bubble up any interactions that might require follow-up. This insight provides supervisors a high-level view of collector performance and areas for improvement.Shantanu Gangal, CEO and Founder of Prodigal, is looking forward to seeing ProNotes and ProVoice help to achieve these goals."The patient and client-centered approach of Revenue Cycle Associates is a perfect fit for our AI's expertise in consumer finance conversations," Gangal said. "We're excited to improve patient experience and drive outcomes for the RCM industry one bill at a time."About ProdigalProdigal is the pioneer of consumer finance intelligence

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon. There’s a lot of fintech news out there and it’s my job to stay on top of it — and make sense of it — so you can stay in the know. — Mary AnnStoried venture firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) invested more in fintech than any other category in 2022, according to research from CB Insights