I am a competitive person. I like to win. However, I have come to realize that sometimes winning isn’t everything. Being part of the “game” can be enough.

Recently, SpringFour was honored to be chosen as a Finalist for LendIt’s Partnership of the Year Award (recognizing the partnership between BMO Harris Bank and SpringFour). We were excited and proud to be named a Finalist. It’s a thrilling feat and huge validation for our small, but rapidly growing, social impact fintech company.

Having just returned last week from my first LendIt Conference, I have the insight and lens from which to gauge the Conference and the Award. It was spectacular. It was huge. It was networking on Red Bull. It was efficient and worthwhile. We made many valuable connections that I am hopeful will continue and prosper beyond the Conference.

5,000 people from over 2,500 companies attended LendIt.

SpringFour was one of six outstanding Fintech/bank partnerships to be nominated for LendIt’s Partnership of the Year Award. That in itself is a huge achievement. To break through the crowd, to see our work validated as one of the best of the best is encouraging and motivating for the SpringFour team.

Our business is built on the idea of cultivating long-lasting, high-impact partnerships. We do not offer direct to consumer products. Our strategy relies on building these partnerships with the financial services industry and others so that our products can create meaningful impact and scale. So to be recognized as one of the best partnerships with partner BMO Harris Bank means a great deal. Partnership truly is what SpringFour stands for and what our team strives to accomplish each day with our clients.

And the best part of receiving this recognition is that as we continue to grow and add banks to our client list, we are helping more people get back on track financially and that can mean big things for people. It can mean that they are finally able to buy the house they have been dreaming of or begin to build that emergency savings account because they now have actual savings to put into it. It means that they now have money in their monthly budget to pay for other household expenses because they now pay less for their necessary prescriptions.

We were not chosen as the winner in this category but that is okay.  We were a finalist for Best Partnership of the Year. And that’s pretty darn good.

Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey

Co-Founder & CEO, SpringFour Inc.

I had the opportunity to share my story as a woman entrepreneur and tech company founder at BMO Harris’s International Women’s Day event this year. It was an honor to be invited to participate in the panel “Trailblazing Conversations with Women Leading Innovation” along with Besty Ziegler, CEO of 1871 and Heather Holmes, founder and CEO of Genivity.  We each shared more about our involvement in the tech world, our challenges and successes,  and our experiences as women tech leaders. Moderator Leslie Anderson, Head of Treasury and Payment Services at BMO Harris helped guide the panel.

I believe that having the opportunity to share stories of our experiences, as well as our failures and mistakes along the way, helps to demystify the entrepreneur experience. Through these conversations, we show other women that anyone who has the desire can become an entrepreneur. The road to success as an entrepreneur is not something that comes fast or easy, and it requires hard work, patience, and resiliency. Those were the messages shared at this event. In sharing our stories, we also highlighted the need for increased attention and funding for women-led companies, and that with the necessary support and encouragement, more women will decide to become entrepreneurs. While the first step might be the hardest, it’s definitely worth taking. Gathering and sharing at events like this lets other women know that we don’t need to wait until everything is perfect before taking the jump, that bravery is rewarded with success.

Rochelle sharing her story on the panel.

Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey

Co-Founder & CEO, SpringFour Inc.

At SpringFour, our clients are our partners. And we think these testimonials provide the proof.

We continue to engage with our partners long after the agreement is signed. It’s not enough for our team at SpringFour to add a new client. We remain engaged, listen, and respond so that our partners have the best possible experience with our applications, whether it’s S4pro or S4direct. Our end goal is to create impact both for the end consumer who is looking to achieve better financial health and for our partners who want to assist their customers and see the impact S4 has on their repayment rates, their brand, and customer experience. And last but not least, the effect SpringFour has on their employees using our customer service focused tools.  

We’ve been told by countless partners that SpringFour is a win-win for all.

Don’t take our word for it. Read our testimonials to see what our partners are saying.

Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey

Co-Founder & CEO, SpringFour Inc.

We are thrilled to announce that we have been named a Finalist for the Most Promising Partnership Award at the LendIt Fintech Industry Awards,  along with BMO Harris Bank for our partnership.  The LendIt Fintech conference is the world’s leading event in financial services innovation, and the awards bring together 400 Fintech influencers and innovators to celebrate outstanding achievements. We can’t wait to attend.

We greatly value our partnership with BMO Harris Bank and the work we are doing together to increase financial wellness opportunities Our partnership began in 2017 when we were selected to participate in the BMO Harris/1871 Fintech Partnership Program, were then selected as one of the winners, and ultimately launched an official partnership in August of 2018.  Since that time, we continue to make great strides working together to improve the financial lives of BMO Harris customers.

Let us know if you will be at the LendIt conference on April 8th & 9th as we welcome the opportunity to meet with you.

Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey

Co-Founder & CEO, SpringFour Inc.

Millions of Americans are on the brink of losing their cars in 2019, and this may very well be a catalyst pushing us all toward the next big American crisis.

Car ownership is essential and more and more individuals and families continue to purchase automobiles in order to provide them with the transportation needed to sustain daily life. And, although automotive technology has changed drastically over the years, one thing remains the same – most cars are purchased by leveraging a loan. In fact, as noted in a Feb 12th, 2019 Washington Post article, 2016 marked a record high with 17.5 million vehicles sold in the United States. Also, according to CNN (in a Feb 13th, 2019 article), there were about 89 million auto loans in the U.S. market in the 4th quarter of this past year.

What is most striking, however, is not the number of auto loans that are being generated, but the number of auto loans that are falling past due. And, not just past due, but at least 3 payments past due! In fact, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported this Feb, 2019 that a record 7 million Americans are 90 days or more behind on their auto loan payments, and this trend has been steadily climbing over the last several years (see below figure).

Unless you yourself are facing the daunting challenge of trying to dig out of a deep auto loan delinquency situation, most people don’t realize how quickly you can lose your vehicle. What is gravely concerning about the noted 7 million auto loans that are 90 days or more behind on their payments, is that all of the vehicles tied to these loans are targets for repossession. Losing your vehicle is painful in itself, but then having to deal with the aftermath, that’s where the countless challenges emerge. For, many of us rely on our car to get us to work, to take our kids to school, to pick up groceries, and make critical appointments. Without your car, life really does stop and one can get paralyzed by this loss.

The trouble we are witnessing with auto loan repayment is a crisis indeed, and it is a crisis that is creeping up on all of us. This crisis is something that is not isolated to any one age group  (see below figure published in a Feb 18th, 2019 Yahoo Finance article). As illustrated, all charted age groups show a rise in auto loan delinquency trends, but what is extra alarming is the extreme rise of delinquency in the millennial age groups (our largest age group of Americans). This points to an even stronger and more concerning correlation to auto loans and other life costs, as this group of Americans finds themselves strapped with not only auto loans, but student loans as well. In all, this data stresses just how broad reaching this crisis truly is.

Many experts believe that this crisis is a sign of something much more severe coming down the road for our overall economy, as auto loans tend to be one of the first loans people think about paying / keeping current. So if auto loans start falling behind, what will be next? Another mortgage loan crisis? A student loan crisis? The potential for a huge impact to our American economy is real, and we should use this evidential auto loan data to embolden our efforts in assisting those who are struggling with bills and/or living paycheck to paycheck.

Our SpringFour team has mentioned in previous blogs that although the U.S. economy is doing well, many millions of Americans still are struggling with their finances. At SpringFour, we understand the need to supply these individuals with truly impactful local non-profit and government resources that can assist them in digging out of the deep holes in which they find themselves trapped. Through key partnerships that SpringFour has made with banks and lenders, there is hope for these financially-burdened individuals. And, this hope extends to the auto loan crisis.

To learn more about SpringFour and how we are partnering with financial institutions to address financial wellness and help individuals and families avoid crippling situations like auto loan defaults, please visit our website (springfour.com).

Scott Freeze

Chief Operating Officer, SpringFour Inc.

We all understand how difficult it can be to find the right solution, with the right technology to enhance services. Particularly in the banking industry it can be especially difficult to know if a technology company has the wherewithal to withstand vendor on-boarding and to find partnerships whose outcome has proven results. That’s why we were excited about the launch of Bank Director’s new FinXTech Connect platform, and to be included as one of the select fintech companies in the platform.

Bank Director launched the FinXTech Connect platform in January of this year in an effort to make it easier for U.S. banks to uncover proven technology partners and solutions. The platform is a curated, online directory of technology companies that are strategically partnering with financial institutions.  And Bank Director’s team did the hard work of hand-selecting and vetting every technology company and solution, determining which are most “bank-friendly.”  All companies selected for the platform must have a proven history of financial performance and an existing roster of bank clients.

SpringFour is proud of our successful history of bank partnerships. We see ourselves as a “partner” rather than a “vendor” and work every day to cultivate a relationship of mutual trust and commitment that insures success.

We look forward to continuing our work and furthering our impact with our existing bank bank partnerships, and in forging new ones. The FinXTech Connect platform provides one more way to showcase technology solutions, and enables us to build on our current and future partnerships.

To learn more about FinXTech, reach out to them here.   If you would like to find out more about SpringFour solutions and how they might be helpful to your customer experience and financial wellness efforts, you can give us a call or shoot us an email.

Katie Gottschall Donohue

Vice President, Strategy and Customer Engagement, SpringFour Inc.