Finding the art of possible with Amplifi Chief Product Officer, Sanjeev Pottay

Episode Six (E6) met with Sanjeev Pottay, Chief Product Officer, and Board member at Amplifi Capital, the fintech disruptor behind consumer-facing brands My Community Finance and Reevo Money. Amplifi aims to revolutionize access to affordable credit for those underserved by traditional high street banks. 

My Community Finance, launched in 2018, provides the infrastructure to match customers with two of the UK’s biggest credit unions. This successful collaboration provides customers, who might otherwise have turned to high-cost lenders or struggled to get the credit they need, with access to competitive loan products.

Reevo Money, Amplifi’s newest consumer-facing brand and own lending platform, is further increasing access to fast, fair, and affordable credit products. We’re excited by Amplifi’s positive impact and commitment to affordable credit and delighted that E6’s capabilities are accelerating those possibilities. 

Tell us a bit about the pain point you wanted to solve before you met E6.  

In the UK, about 20 million people can’t access credit from traditional high street banks. That’s about 1 in 3 people. So, we founded My Community Finance with the aim of increasing access to affordable credit options. Our strategy has since evolved and we’re now striving to be the preferred provider for those 20 million customers underserved by traditional high street banks.

When originally researching the market, we identified credit unions as having a unique proposition, which allows them to give competitive prices to near-prime customers seeking personal loans. We’ve seen great success with My Community Finance. In fact, in a price comparison setting, our data suggests that over 80% of our customers either get the best possible price or wouldn’t have received an offer from any other lender.

What E6 product did you choose to solve this pain point and why? 

We were attracted to E6’s unique capabilities, namely a ledger and issuer processing system rolled into one, that works with our existing infrastructure without causing any disruption to our lending services.   During our search, there weren’t many providers who could offer that ledger and processing combination. I prefer working with folks who are striving to make differences and disrupt the market. 

When we looked at the market, there were a multitude of card issuer processers, but they were prepayment card issuers, not credit. We wanted to offer credit services and card issuing, not just prepaid cards. Now we have the ability to do just that with the fintech platform we built with E6.  

How would you sum up your experience with E6 technology and our people?  

The technology is great, especially since both Amplifi and E6 can develop the product together and make it fit for the UK market. We loved your sales, architect, and product folks because they are very knowledgeable. They understand the credit card space and the complexity of a general ledger, which was a key driver in our decision with E6. The main takeaway is that your people were confident with E6’s credit solution and delivering it to Amplifi.  

How would your business be different if you didn't have E6?  

We’d still be dealing with the intricacies that come with the search for a credit solution. Without E6, we’d be challenged with stitching our core banking system with an issuer processor. Our biggest concern was managing the connection between ledger and issuer processor because it is so complex. So, we’d be faced with those challenges and technical limitations. Undoubtedly it would have slowed down our speed to market and product launch. Fortunately, our partnership with E6 has provided a cleaner architectural process, enabling us to navigate these challenges seamlessly.  

How likely are you to recommend our product to a colleague or client? What would you tell them?  

I would absolutely recommend E6. I think it's a high-quality product because of the general ledger’s unique capabilities with card issuing, plus the ease and immediacy of using APIs. If you're looking for that individualized product proposition to a customer, E6 can provide that. It allows you to do things that other credit card platforms can’t. You can send APIs in real time, and increase and decrease the credit limit or the price, even at the individual account level, which is fairly unique from a credit provider.  

What is your advice for banks looking to launch credit cards? 

It’s important to do your homework and be sure that your provider understands how their solution can solve your pain points. Launching credit card products is not an off-the-shelf solution. It's a joint commercial, tech, and credit decision so that you can architect your solution cohesively. You also need to keep in mind whether your solution will give you product differentiation and meet your long-term needs. The reality is that you need a competitive advantage, and technology is that advantage. If you look at it in that mindset, you'll win within.  

What would you recommend for banks looking to modernize their tech stack?  

The real success points that I've seen are small, dedicated teams that can innovate and launch a new product and slowly evolve it over time. Having quick speed and execution road maps is important, especially for compliance. Relying on consultants might slow this down if they’re selling a solution that doesn’t actually provide the solution you need. If you rely only on consultants, it’s not clear what the art of possibility is, which is a fundamental problem. It’s only when I started talking to all the vendors that I began to piece together what was within our reach.  

The world seems to tell banks to buy an out-of-the-box solution, but you’re locked in with high cost and low functionality. And there’s a fintech world claiming you must code everything yourself, which is very complex. But there’s also a middle ground, where you can bring all these parts together and execute, without a software house to do it. We’re very happy with that middle ground because we were able to find that art of possibility. And E6 helped us to deliver it.