MorganAsh has enhanced its MorganAsh Resilience System (MARS), introducing an upgrade to its algorithms designed to help firms more accurately manage clients with multiple vulnerabilities.
The system, widely used across the financial services and utilities sectors, provides a single, objective “Resilience Rating” – similar to a credit score but focused on vulnerability.
The latest update enables MARS to capture the compounding effects of health, financial, lifestyle and other issues that often overlap, rather than treating them in isolation.
The development follows research by the Financial Conduct Authority showing that consumers with multiple vulnerabilities often suffer disproportionately more than those with single issues, yet most firms’ approaches to vulnerability management fail to address this.
Andrew Gething, managing director of MorganAsh, said: “We know from our own work looking after ill people, that having multiple issues has a compounding effect, and while humans are great at recognising this on an individual basis, it is challenging to replicate digitally.
“The MARS development team has worked incredibly hard to model our algorithms to match reality, over many months, back-testing against real data.
“I am delighted this has now come to fruition – and is being released for our customers, to further improve customer vulnerability management without increasing costs.”
HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM
MARS now uses a hierarchy to categorise individual circumstances into health, wealth, lifestyle, financial capability, engagement capability and support network. Each is given a severity weighting, and the combined score generates the Resilience Rating.
The platform can trigger support needs based on specific circumstances – for instance, hearing loss prompting an alternative communications method – or on the cumulative effect of several issues, which may require intervention even if no single factor would do so.
The tool also allows for family-based assessments, recognising that many financial decisions, such as mortgages and retirement planning, are made jointly. This avoids triggering unnecessary interventions where support is already provided within the household.
Chris Markland, compliance manager at Guarantor My Loan & Share My Loan, said: “Having the ability to not only identify vulnerabilities, but to also truly recognise and understand the impact that multiple issues may have on our customers is a great feature and its value cannot be overstated.
“With MARS triggering targeted support treatments, our teams have never been better equipped to provide dedicated, individual support channels to our customers. We can’t wait to incorporate these new features into our processes.”
PRACTICAL INNOVATION
Carolyn Delehanty, vulnerability and inclusive design consultant at Delehanty Consulting, added: “The FCA has been clear that firms must move beyond ‘tick-box’ approaches to vulnerability. The reality is that people rarely experience a single, isolated issue – challenges overlap and compound each other.
“Being able to record this gives firms the ability to reflect real human experience in their data, and to make better decisions that lead to fairer outcomes.
“This is exactly the kind of practical innovation we need to see to turn Consumer Duty from a regulatory requirement into a genuine driver of inclusion.”
