Financial Literacy Education for Customers and Call Center Agents
2 Programs to Help You Meet New Regulatory Requirements and Improve Outcomes Across the Lending Lifecycle
Regulations like the Equal Opportunity Act and UK Fair Lending laws require lenders to assess borrowers’ ability to repay. Borrowers however, often lack the financial literacy needed to manage credit effectively.
This creates a delicate balance for lenders: extending credit responsibly while mitigating default risks. In response, some states like Florida and California now mandate financial literacy education at the time a loan is granted.
Our fast, compliant, financial literacy education provides a solution to this burden by empowering customers with smarter borrowing habits, and agents with tailored loss mitigation strategies. It’s a no-regrets decision to put customers and members first.
Attack Financial Illiteracy from Both Directions with Deployable Education Modules
*In 2023, financial illiteracy cost Americans $1,506 on average (NFEC)
Bridgeforce has partnered with CBS Academy, a leader in transforming collections call center operations and customer care, to deliver universal education that enhances call center operations and improves lending outcomes.
The Details – What You can Expect from Our Education Courses
Maintaining Credit Health – Customer Education
Equip borrowers with the knowledge and skills to maintain credit health and navigate significant life events.
From starting a family to buying a home or planning for retirement, this course offers insights, resources and tools to make informed financial decisions and manage their finances effectively through life’s key milestones.
Course Includes:
- Mobile-friendly education in 10 minutes
- Complementary budget tool
- Suite of continuous learning resources
- Knowledge checks to validate understanding
- Certificate of completion
What Customers will Learn:
By the end of this course, customers will understand:
- The types of credit available
- Credit scores and the factors used to make up a credit score
- Financial stresses that happen during key life events and the impact of them on credit health
- How to improve their credit health and credit score
- How to create and stick to a budget
- How to obtain, review, and dispute their credit report and protect against identity theft
Contact Center Financial Literacy Education
Empower agents with a better understanding of the financial impacts of life events to increase the effectiveness of calls and reduce financial delinquencies. Demonstrate good stewardship with investments in agents and customer outcomes.
This course gives agents core skills to provide the right solutions to struggling customers.
Course Includes:
- 4 hours of educational content
- Participant workbook to track progress
- Resources to support follow-up learning
- Knowledge checks to validate understanding
Program Overview
Have existing training materials? We have supplemental guides that we can adapt to fit your look and feel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What state laws are mandating financial education and how does this course help?
A new Florida law requires free financial education to be offered to borrowers with a Florida zip code or phone number area code at the time a loan is made (HB 1347).
In California, Article 3 22304.5 requires finance lenders offering loans between $2,500 and $10,000 to take specific steps to support borrowers’ financial literacy:
- Lenders must report borrowers’ payment performance to at least one NCRA.
- Before disbursing loan proceeds, lenders must provide borrowers with a free credit education program or seminar, which must be reviewed and approved by the state commissioner.
While many organizations offer resources to some capacity, most don’t meet the requirements set forth in these laws. Our customer education is designed to meet the “by the book” standards. Even if your bank is not affected by these changes, now is a good time to assess what practices you have in place to curb financial illiteracy among your customers.
How do the educational courses work?
Our courses are web-based, meaning there are no required system integrations. Customers and agents receive a login via CBS Academy’s online portal where they can take the course and track their progress.
Can I demo the courses?
We are confident about the value of our education and invite you to try it out first! Reach out to receive up to three logins and assess the value of our education upfront.
How do these course differ from other online training?
FOR AGENTS: Other courses don’t go through each life event in detail. Our course walks agents through eight key life events and the financial implications on their customers for each. By the end of the course, agents will fully understand the potential credit impacts and can help find the right solution for every customer.
FOR CUSTOMERS: Many programs exist to teach customers about individual topics, but our education brings it all together in one place. The education also provides a free budgeting tool, list of additional resources and accreditation with a certificate to evidence completion. This enables lenders to potentially offer preferential terms on that basis.
FOR YOU: All of our material is white-labeled so that it can be branded by your brand standards.
How much do the education modules cost?
Click here to request a demo and receive a pricing guide.