Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
~Anonoymous

As the virus starts to lose its punch, the destruction resembles the aftermath of a hurricane, an unrecognizable landscape with splintered pieces of yesterday scattered about. Overwhelming doesn’t do it justice; it’s a prayer away from being hopeless, yet thankfully, we live in a country that knows how to recover under the harshest odds. We all recognize the phrase it takes a village, but that won’t be enough without ongoing legislative support on every level. As a unified nation, building back financial potency at all costs is our only hope to revive a struggling country and their besieged families.

Over the last year debt has skyrocketed for businesses, workers, families, with no one left unscathed; our country’s lower wage employees took the most powerful hit. According to a research study by Pew Research center, 36% of lower income adults and 28% of middle-income adults lost their job or had to accept a pay cut, in comparison to 22% of upper-income adults.

Weeks ago, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the real unemployment rate is closer to 10% after factoring in misclassification errors into the Bureau of Labor statistic of 6.3%. Putting it into perspective, according to NBC News, in pre-pandemic 2019 the unemployment rate was 3.5%. Yikes!

One of the Catch-22 limitations of the government stimulus program is private debt collectors get first dibs on the 3rd round $1400 stimulus checks, including: debts from private student loans, medical, and credit cards while debts for back taxes, child support, or government debt are protected.

Congress has the power to change this loophole however, there are arguments on both sides of the table. Debt collectors are businesses that are trying desperately to survive during this crisis, as well as the people they are trying to collect from. Finding the balance is a conundrum that the government hasn’t figured out so that both parties benefit from the resolution.

The pandemic has illuminated the harsh inequalities of our society, and the need for a more inclusive access to financial services, especially for vulnerable groups. In many ways, the pandemic forced pivotal changes in numerous business models that will endure long after the threat has passed. This historical credit crisis demands that new methodologies for determining consumer affordability must be employed. The bureaus’ data is limited in scope often relying on outdated, unfair information which paints a muddled picture of consumer affordability.

RIBBIT has cracked the payment code analyzing current, real-time bank transactions which generate thousands of consumer attributes so that more consumers can be approved for purchases of goods/ services.

Steven Thompson, RIBBIT’s Chief Data Scientist explains:

“We have been watching bank account usage closely over the last 12 months and have seen a marked increase in the percentage of late payments due to affordability concerns. In many cases we are seeing up to 40% of initial non-payments due to affordability. Understanding affordability at the time of application improves the customer experience and improves the financial results for both the customer and the lender. RIBBIT’s RevealedAffordability™ solutions provide recommendations for affordability no matter how a customer chooses to engage – whether that is through our non-credentialed BankVERIFY+ or credentialed BankLOGIN+.”

If there was ever a time for this game-changing discovery, now is the time . . . hello RIBBIT.

Stay tuned . . .