Argenta had already sixty years of experience in Belgium when it decided in 2015 that the organization should grow to be a digital bank in The Netherlands. To achieve this, a stand-alone organization had to be established. Pipple assisted that organization in becoming data-driven from the early beginnings.
Flexible
Argenta is one of the ten largest mortgage lenders in The Netherlands. Nevertheless, in terms of the size of the organization, it is five to ten times smaller than some of its competitors. Deliberately, Sander Blommaert argues. He is one of the two directors and ultimately responsible for finance and risk management at Argenta The Netherlands. “Services, in which other parties excel, we purchase. In that way, with only a small organization, we are still able to serve almost 300,000 customers at a relatively low cost.” They retain data management and credit risk under their own control though. Since the initiation of the digital bank, they have been permanently accompanied by one or more data scientists from Pipple. With the aid of their expertise, Argenta integrates a sometimes seemingly endless stream of regulations timely and accurately into their systems, processes and decision-making procedures.
Insights from the data
“Pipple assisted us in managing credit risk in our portfolio and in discovering trends.”, Blommaert explains. “Therefore, we now approach the customer at smarter moments in time.” This also resulted in a considerable saving. “Our system automatically counted the number of customers who missed a payment. We based our losses on that information. We also knew that this assessment required a correction, but we were not able to get a more clear image. Because of Pipple’s work, we are now able to execute a correcting bypass by means of data checks. Therefore, we do no longer book erroneous losses and, thus, we need to put less money aside.”
Because of Pipple’s work, we are now able to execute a correcting bypass by means of data checks. Therefore, we do no longer book erroneous losses and we need to put less money aside.
Young talent
Besides Ruud Mullers, several ‘Pippelaars’ have already contributed to the development of the bank. Almost all of them were seconded at Argenta for at least a year; a requirement of Blommaert. “We benefit from continuity.” The fact that most of them are young and without too much experience is an advantage, according to Blommaert. “They are trained in current, complex data- and IT-challenges, and do not suffer from deeply ingrained patterns of work. Moreover, Jeroen de Haas has a keen eye for attracting young top talent as well as the goodwill factor. Econometricians at Pipple are always very eager and inquisitive.”
