Clocktower Support
Clocktower Support is a niche financial services firm, specialising in short-term loans for foreign nationals from Asia. The firm was founded in 2016 by Danny Thomas, who found that friends of his Filipino wife struggled to establish themselves when coming to the UK.
“Coming from abroad, mostly on their own, working with families or in care homes, they are quite isolated here,” says Danny. Lacking a local support network, without a British passport and perhaps without strong English language skills, many struggle to find support from mainstream financial services firms.
This is where Clocktower Support comes in. A key part of Clocktower Support’s approach is to assess each person’s vulnerability. To do this, the firm uses MARS, the MorganAsh Resilience System.
“The clients see that we do it to care for them, rather than just lend and take the profit. It’s not seen as intrusive. It would be very difficult and time-consuming to do the same thing without MARS. I love the charts and graphs.”
New customers complete an online assessment. “Assessments are easy,” says Danny. “I send a link via email. People are happy to fill it in and we’ve never had anyone who’s refused. One person didn’t have an email account, so I worked through it personally with them. The assessment gives me a good idea of any vulnerabilities, based on many parameters.”
It’s no surprise that the firm’s proportion of vulnerable customers is higher than the 50% most firms should expect, based on the FCA’s Financial Lives survey. “We have around 80% assessed as vulnerable.” Having this information enables Clocktower Support to work more closely with their clients, as well as be able to demonstrate comparable outcomes for both resilient and vulnerable customers.
“The clients see that we do it to care for them, rather than just lend and take the profit. It’s not seen as intrusive. They appreciate that we do it to look at their circumstances and make sure what we do is affordable for them and doesn’t cause financial or mental distress,” says Danny.
Clocktower Support looks at each assessment report and then works with individual clients to help them deal with any issues which arise from their vulnerability characteristics. “We get to know them quite well; we can ask each person if there is anything they need, based on the data MARS provides.”
The MARS data, along with other factors such as affordability and credit checks, enable Clocktower Support to work confidently with people who otherwise would have nowhere reputable to turn.
Danny finds MARS easy to use. “It’s very straightforward. Setting up a new case is very easy and it’s easy to navigate and use. It would be very difficult and time-consuming to do the same thing without MARS. I love the charts and graphs. It’s now part of my workflow and works well.”
MARS fits well into Clocktower Support’s altruistic approach, although its adoption was initially driven by the introduction of Consumer Duty. “We work with individuals,” says Danny, “to give them the support they need. The push towards supporting vulnerable customers is a good thing for the industry. In some ways we were doing it, but now we can quantify it and demonstrate it.”
