There is sure to be a growing consumer debt issue when the government assistance finally ends and banks are starting to look at new solutions for debt collections; “A tremendous amount of liquidity assistance has been provided to customers,” said Brian Middleton, Head of Strategic Execution and Business Transformation in Regions Bank’s operations and technology group, to American Banker. “It’s fair to say that that will run out at some point. My hope is that customers are back to being fully employed soon. Only time will tell.”; banks have already moved to a more customer friendly way of renegotiating debts or setting up payment and deferment plans during the crisis; self service is also becoming more common as most people do not want to talk to someone on the phone and are more likely to address their issues on a web or app based portal; “We feel strongly about being a relationship bank and those relationships, just like marriage, aren’t only for good times, they’re for good times and bad,” said Kimberly Snipes, Consumer Chief Information Officer at Cleveland-based Key, to American Banker. “We want our customers to say, I hate that I had that situation, but I felt like my bank was working with me, not against me.” American Banker.
