Arrears Case Consultant

What is the opportunity

To join a small team supporting customers through the life cycle of their finances.

Front line staff are a vital touch point for identifying, recording and responding to customers who are in arrears or facing financial difficulty.

The role will involve communicating with customer to understand their financial circumstances and make appropriate decisions that support our customers and limit losses to the Bank. This will be achieved by fully understanding the individual needs of customers and where necessary using negotiating and influencing skills to agree a sustainable strategy.

Appropriate signposting of customers to agencies that can provide further support (eg. External agencies and debt advice organisations) when customers are in financial difficulty, experiencing vulnerability or require further help to make decisions regarding their mortgage or financial affairs is also key.

Where support has been agreed the role holder will monitor ongoing arrangements to ensure they accurately reflect customer's current financial circumstances and assist customers with debt management tools where appropriate.

In this role you will:

• Contacting customers to understand their financial circumstances and make appropriate decisions that support our customers and limit losses to the Bank.
• Managing own caseloads and those of others and ensuring actions are in line with the required regulatory framework, policies and procedures.
• Using negotiating and influencing skills to agree a sustainable strategy or make recommendations to a higher mandate holder where required.
• Signposting customers to agencies that can provide further support (eg. external agencies and debt advice organisations) when customers are in financial difficulty, experiencing vulnerability or require further help to make decisions regarding their mortgage or financial affairs.
• Monitoring ongoing arrangements to ensure they accurately reflect customer's current financial circumstances and assist customers with debt management tools where appropriate.
• Understanding and acting within the conduct framework ensuring that all customers are treated fairly.
• Identifying customer vulnerabilities and ensuring that these are dealt with sensitively.
• Updating system records to ensure that all activity is recorded accurately.
• Identifying triggers that suggest that the customer is "unlikely to pay".
• Managing mailbox enquiries from internal and external customers.

What will make you stand out?

Attention to detail and focus on delivering quality outcomes for customers.

Demonstrate ability to prioritise workloads and meet deadlines

Listening skills and problem solving mindset.

Ability to influence and negotiate tailored solutions within pre defined mandates.

Experience of working in an emotionally challenging role preferred.

Ability to prioritise between competing priorities in a sometimes stressful environment.

Essential Qualifications

There are no minimum educational requirements for this role.

More about the team

The Northridge collections and recoveries department is responsible for managing all UK customers who are experiencing financial or repayment difficulties. This may be because of a change in their circumstances leading to arrears on the account or due to a breach of contract, such as non-payment of a matured loan. We deliver responsible debt management throughout the customer lifecycle, balancing commercial risk with the delivery of fair & sustainable customer outcomes.

We attempt to proactively engage with our customers to help us to gain a full understanding of their financial situation, and we will take into account their individual circumstances while working with them to tailor a strategy that suits their needs. We utilise a range of hardship tools and forbearance options which can help customers through difficult periods or provide solutions which enable repayment of loans past maturity.

We deal sympathetically and positively with any cases where a customer is in financial difficulty, and we are informed that they have potential vulnerability. Their vulnerability may affect their ability to deal with financial matters or mean that they will experience difficulty in being contacted by our usual communications channels. We will work with the customer to minimise the risk of detriment whilst working towards an outcome which is appropriate to the customers individual needs and circumstances.

#li-hybrid #ij-hybrid

Why work with us

The Bank of Ireland company culture prioritises work-life balance with an opportunity for flexible working, along with 24 days annual leave and excellent pension contributions. Family can mean different things to different people; we offer 6 months paid maternity leave, an innovative fertility and surrogacy policy and working parent supports.

Your wellbeing is important to us; we have an employee assistance program, WebDoctor and financial wellbeing coaches available. We also encourage and support staff to pursue educational and professional qualifications to grow and enhance your career!

Key Competencies

• Customer Focused - Self
• One Group, one team - Self
• Agile - Self
• Manage Risk - Self
• Accountable - Self

Where Agency assistance is required Bank of Ireland Recruitment Team will engage directly with suppliers. Unsolicited CVs / profiles supplied to Bank of Ireland by Recruitment Agencies will not be accepted for this role.

We're on a continuous journey to build an inclusive and diverse workplace. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, lived experience, abilities and perspectives. Reasonable accommodations are offered at every stage of our recruitment process. If you require any assistance, please complete this form and one of our recruitment team members will be in touch via email.

Any information provided will be treated as confidential within the recruitment team and used only for the purpose of determining and providing appropriate accommodations for the application and recruitment process.