After publication in November of the Managing Loan Declines: A Best Practice Manual, based on research by Coventry University and Swoboda Research Centre and funded by Fair4All Finance, we held a very well-attended webinar in January where the authors of the manual were able to discuss their findings with credit union and CDFI staff from around Britain, together with regulators, universities and other stakeholders.
In response to requests from webinar attendees, we can now make available the following templates to support implementation of the tips and hints in the report:
- The letter template, here, contains instructions and content for emails and letters to applicants who have been declined for a loan. We know that people who have been declined will benefit from simple feedback on the reason why and what they can do next
- An applicant ‘journey mapping’ worked example and blank template is provided in PowerPoint here, and a Word document with ‘how to’ instructions for the applicant journey template plus a simplified version of the PowerPoint template is here.
If you have any feedback on these documents, or would like to discuss this topic and the research more generally, please contact Professor Sally Dibb (sally.dibb@coventry.ac.uk) or Dr Lindsey Appleyard (lindsey.appleyard@coventry.ac.uk). For suggestions about future research opportunities that Swoboda might pursue on behalf of providers, please contact Dr Paul Jones (p.a.jones@ljmu.ac.uk).
To keep up to date with Swoboda Research Centre activities, join our mailing list via the form at the bottom of our website’s home page. To discuss becoming a subscribing member of Swoboda and receive early access to research and the opportunity to participate in projects, contact Nick Money (nick.money@swobodacentre.org).