A super engaging day talking about affordability, affordability assessment and customer engagement in Canada. It is always interesting how so many of the challenges are similar, which can lead to some great insights.
Some notes from the session to follow below, plus a music video to support the event.
w/ thanks to TransUnion, Bridge Capital Partners, Symend for sponsoring and SmartI&E for partnering on this event
The Affordability Summit brought together industry participants from across the financial services ecosystem to examine the growing challenge of consumer affordability in Canada. The discussions focused on how rising household debt, economic pressures and changing customer expectations are reshaping the way institutions approach credit, collections and customer engagement.
Speakers explored the transition from traditional operational models towards more data-driven, digitally enabled and customer-centred approaches.
Across the sessions, the central theme was the need for financial institutions to balance commercial performance with improved customer outcomes by building systems that identify financial stress earlier, engage customers more effectively and support long-term financial resilience.
Event Music Video
Key Take Aways
- Affordability as a strategic priority for financial services, linking household financial resilience to customer engagement, collections performance and operational efficiency.
- Participants emphasised that traditional collections models are no longer sufficient; the sector is shifting towards digital-first, customer-centred engagement models focused on long-term outcomes rather than short-term recovery.
- Consumer financial stress was highlighted as a central driver of change, with rising debt levels, cost-of-living pressures and savings depletion contributing to higher vulnerability.
- Early intervention was identified as a critical success factor, with proactive outreach and earlier engagement helping prevent customers from progressing deeper into financial difficulty.
- A more holistic view of affordability is emerging, incorporating income, expenditure, debt obligations, savings and behavioural signals rather than relying solely on credit scores.
- Data-led affordability assessment is becoming a core capability, with institutions exploring the use of consented bank transaction data and standardised income-and-expenditure frameworks.
- Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded across the value chain, including underwriting, fraud detection, segmentation, communication and collections optimisation.
- The preferred operating model is a hybrid one: digital tools and automation improve scale and efficiency, while human interaction remains essential for complex or vulnerable cases.
- Trust in communication channels emerged as a material issue, particularly in voice contact, where fraud, spoofing and spam labelling significantly affect answer rates.
- Payments innovation was identified as a major opportunity to improve conversion rates and reduce costs through faster payment rails, digital wallets and new settlement mechanisms.
- Empathy and fairness were repeatedly highlighted as essential elements of effective customer engagement, particularly when dealing with financially stressed customers.
- Overall, organisations are increasingly focused on achieving a balanced outcome: improving collections effectiveness while strengthening customer relationships and supporting financial resilience.
Innovatation
- Data-driven affordability assessments using consumer-consented bank data to enhance accuracy and reduce manual processes.
- Development of a proposed national affordability assessment framework and standardised income-and-expenditure methodology.
- Expansion of digital self-service channels allowing customers to manage accounts and resolve arrears at any time.
- Branded call display and spoof-protection technologies designed to restore trust in voice communications.
- Behavioural-science-based collections strategies that tailor engagement based on customer archetypes and behavioural patterns.
- Voice AI solutions designed to support dynamic conversations, negotiation flows and escalation to human agents when needed.
- Personalised and multi-channel engagement strategies incorporating behavioural nudges and simplified messaging.
- Inclusive service design approaches that consider neurodiversity and reduce cognitive load during financial decision-making.
- Exploration of stablecoin-based payments to reduce transaction fees and enable instant settlement.
- Integrated financial empowerment models linking debt support, savings programmes and access to benefits.
- Adoption of agentic AI capabilities in payments, enabling automated payment processes and real-time risk scoring.
Key Statistics
- Household credit market debt-to-disposable income ratio: 176.7%.
- Mortgage arrears rate: 0.25%.
- 90+ day non-mortgage delinquency rate: 1.63%, up 14% year-on-year.
- Missed payment rates: 5.2% for consumers aged 18–34, compared with 2.1% for ages 35–54 and 0.8% for ages 55+.
- 40% of Canadian households with debt reported that their debt had increased.
- 46% of households accessed savings to cope with current economic pressures.
- Around 50% of households reported struggling with financial commitments.
- Low-income households with debt spend approximately 31% of income on debt repayment.
- Median student loan debt among indebted low-income households: $15,000.
- 35% of households reported borrowing money to cover daily expenses.
- 42% of Canadians could cover basic expenses for less than one month if they lost their primary income.
- Financial capacity assessments typically take 30–45 minutes when conducted manually.
- Approximately 9 million decisions in Canada used consumer-consented bank data in 2025.
- Canadian household debt reached approximately $2.6 trillion.
- Around 1.2 million mortgages were expected to renew at higher rates in 2026.
- Consumers receive approximately 400 billion messages per day and make around 35,000 decisions daily.
- 13% of consumers were expected to miss a payment within the following three months.
- 43% of consumers reported that financial stress negatively affects mental health.
- Global e-commerce fraud was projected to reach $56.1 billion in 2025.
- Canadians lost approximately $643 million to fraud in 2024.
- Banks were reported to lose an average of $600,000 per voice deepfake incident.
- Approximately 53 billion robocalls were recorded globally in 2024.
- 61% of consumers reported not answering phone calls due to safety or fraud concerns.
- Branded call display initiatives showed improvements including a 39% increase in right-party contact and a 45% increase in promise-to-pay rates.
Key Discussion Points
- The growing impact of affordability pressures on collections, customer engagement and financial wellbeing in Canada.
- The shift from operationally driven collections processes to customer-centred engagement strategies.
- The importance of earlier identification of financial distress and proactive intervention.
- Limitations of current affordability assessment approaches and the need for standardisation.
- Opportunities to leverage consumer-consented financial data to improve affordability analysis.
- The expanding role of digital self-service channels in reducing operational costs and increasing engagement.
- The influence of behavioural science in improving repayment outcomes.
- The importance of empathy, transparency and clarity in communications with financially vulnerable customers.
- The role of AI across the financial services value chain, including underwriting, fraud prevention and collections.
- Expanding access to fair and affordable financial products and support services.
- Addressing declining trust in voice communications caused by fraud and spoofing.
- Leveraging payments innovation to improve customer experience and operational efficiency.
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