Welcome back to Collections Conversations, a miniseries from Fintech Takes, sponsored by our friends at C&R Software.

The series digs into how generative AI is reshaping debt collections: what it enables, what it complicates, and why it may force the industry to retire the word "collections" altogether.

In this episode, I sit down with Chris Smith, VP of Product at C&R Software to discuss what goes on in collections around the rest of the world. 

I spend almost all my time looking at the U.S. market, and Chris is exactly the right person to tell me what I'm missing.

We start with why innovation in collections tends to be powered by friction. Markets without reliable infrastructure had no choice but to go digital fast (the U.S. had no particular urgency).

From there, we get into regulation. The U.K.'s Consumer Duty asks banks to prove that every customer interaction produces the right outcome (with data). That mindset goes further than most U.S. lenders would expect. One U.K. bank ran NPS scores across every customer touchpoint, and the highest score came from collections.

On AI, Chris compares a U.S. and South African bank he spoke with in the same week, finding radically different appetites for autonomous AI in collections.

We close on Chris's slightly controversial prediction: in the most progressive global markets, collections as a category may not exist in five years.

This episode is brought to you by C&R Software. 

More than just debt collection, C&R sets the global standard for AI-native, humanized credit management. They simplify the complex with end-to-end credit-risk lifecycle support, powered by automated workflows, AI-native intelligence, and real-time, data-driven decisioning. Learn more at https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0.

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Learn more about C&R Software here: https://hubs.ly/Q03Wl1DY0