Testimonials

Utilising pbl industry benchmarking data has given valuable insight into how our operations perform vs. our peers. This has proven particularly powerful over the last 12 months to understand how the pandemic has impacted similar institutions, and enabled us to understand how this impacted us as a bank relative to other institutions.

Working with pbl has had numerous benefits to our business, and supported the development of new policies, approaches and practices. Further, even where changes have not been required it has helped my department justify our existing approach(es) by strong peer group comparison. Three key facets of the relationship help us develop our learning: quantitative comparisons, which take time to establish a comparable baseline but are really valuable as a result; qualitative discussions and benchmarking that help shape our learning; and the networks created by the forum. In addition the "ebench" service is a useful tool to compare information anonymously outside of the regular forums.

Since renewing our membership of the pbl mortgage benchmarking groups, we have been able to both identify and rationalise our place in the mortgage market. The additional insight that the pbl benchmarking service provides is not available from any other source and provides a robust foundation for peer review. Managing our mortgage portfolio is about being the best, not the biggest: with access to new statistics and research through the pbl groups, we can make sure that we are putting customers first.

pbl are simply the best value in benchmarking I've come across. They think harder, share more (within competitive constraints), and help more with less fuss than too many competitors. And they're nice people to work with

pbl information is an extremely useful tool in our risk management framework. The insight and comparative analysis gained from membership has been used at all levels of the organisation in a wide range of purposes from influencing risk appetite to informing detailed lending policy.

pbl data adds a depth and perspective to our view of Credit Risk that wouldn't be available using internal data alone. Supplementing this with their regular peer meetings, our depth of understanding of the mortgage market and the issues it faces is significantly enhanced. From Credit Risk's perspective, pbl are one of our most valuable external contacts.

pbl benchmarking data gives valuable additional insight to our understanding of our customer profile and gives context to the impacts of our risk strategies by enabling market comparisons. The product specific benchmarking groups facilitate discussions covering industry topics and sharing of best practice within a controlled and compliant environment, which otherwise would be difficult to replicate.

We have been a client of pbl for several years. Our priority is to make sure we are managing credit risk as effectively as possible. The risk management benchmarking data that pbl provides gives us an invaluable additional perspective through which to challenge ourselves and our effectiveness as risk managers. It provides actionable insight, and allows us to chart our progress in the industry.

Membership of pbl’s unsecured personal loans benchmarking group has allowed us to compare our independent risk management directly to our peers. The benefits we have gained include enhancing our efficiencies through wider knowledge of industry best practice and informing stakeholders of our comparative performance.

The pbl benchmarking forum gives a perspective not available anywhere else using the well tested formula for the Credit focused groups in a fraud environment. It provides an opportunity to discuss current fraud threats and best practice as well as facilitating value added discussion on mitigating fraud aimed at UK PLC, with the Bank's often unwitting facilitators. The insights I have been able to gain from the benchmarking metrics have proved invaluable. They have given a fresh insight into our performance at industry level and an opportunity to use this rich information to provide further focus on specific fraud types, enabling us to better protect our customers from becoming victims of Fraud.

The use of external benchmarking data when making business decisions is becoming more prevalent, and we find that pbl provide a unique level of granularity that enables us to utilise the information to bring an additional view when making decisions.

pbl facilitate interesting discussion about topics of relevance to, and chosen by, the group at a level of detail that ensures both an appropriate level of contribution is given and knowledge is gained. They listen to and act on feedback given to maximise benefit to participants. Both the qualitative and quantitative anonymous benchmarking activity provide not only additional insight but also reassurance that our arrears management practices remain appropriate in a changing economic climate.

Keeping abreast of the latest thinking, trends, and regulation is of the utmost importance in the ever changing credit, debt and fraud management arenas. pbl provide a great opportunity for organisations to get together to share information and experiences that are of mutual benefit to participating parties and consumers alike.

pbl membership is an effective way to keep abreast of industry issues. Conversations are expertly managed by the pbl team to ensure that all participants contribute to discussions in a safe and compliant environment. Additionally, the ebench service has been a valuable tool when answering the Exec's favourite question of ‘what do others do in this situation?’