Equiant Responds to COVID-19 Outbreak

In light of the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Equiant has activated its Business Continuity Plans to support the general health of its employees and maximize productivity in its workforce. The financial services and technology provider’s clients can rest assured that systemic business processes including payment processing, reporting, and account management are not impacted and are business as usual. The company’s call center and client-service teams will remain active at all times. All Equiant employees who work remotely have been permissioned with a secure company laptop and will log in via a Virtual Private Network via two-factor authentication.

The company is also reminding clients that Equiant’s cloud-based solutions mean that anyone using eqConnect can manage outreach campaigns through an advanced preview dialer and Interactive Voice Response technology. This means that companies practicing social distancing by having employees work remotely can stay current on productivity even in these challenging times.

Equiant’s servicing technology solutions can be rapidly reconfigured, which means clients who wish to offer payment relief to consumers have options.

• Loan Deferments: Equiant has worked closely with lenders and developers to create a seamless loan-deferment process. Clients can extend the next payment due date up to 90 days. The loan term will be extended to match the forbearance period. Consumers that qualify due to COVID-19 hardship will have peace of mind their automatic payments will stay on hold and continue when the deferment period is complete.
• Refinance: Clients can change loan terms including interest rates and length of loans. This strategy will require new documents to be funded and may require lender approval.

Clients who wish to offer these options to consumers should consult with their Equiant representative, and when appropriate their lender, to initiate the process.

“We are well aware that this is perhaps the most challenging period U.S. businesses have ever faced,” says Peter Moody, Equiant’s chief business development officer. “That’s why we’re reminding our clients and employees that we are standing by to assist and advise them as they plan for the coming months. The health and safety of our staff, as well as our clients, remains our No. 1 focus, so we’re doing all we can to maintain business continuity while adhering to social distancing standards.”

Equiant has endorsed and donated to Governor Doug Ducey’s Arizona Together program, which was established to help local communities combat the spread of COVID-19 and support local businesses and individuals during the recovery period. To learn more, visit www.arizonatogether.org.

In light of limited supplies of toilet paper and essential food items in local stores, Equiant’s leadership team is also supporting their staff by creating the Equiant Marketplace, which is restocked daily. Here, Equiant’s employees can ease their minds a bit by picking up these basic necessities for their families. Any remaining items will be donated to a local food bank.

Equiant is one of the United States’ leading structured finance servicers with a portfolio that exceeds $1.5 billion and includes more than 175,000 individual consumer loans. Its array of finance al technology products and services includes loan receivables and maintenance fee servicing on a fully hosted web platform, PaaS receivables technology, point of sale merchant processing with PCI Level I compliance, document custody (including digital), integrated payments, integrated reporting, integrated communications and now integrated contact center tools for early stage recovery and delinquency control. To learn more about Equiant’s industry-leading security and receivables servicing, call Peter Moody at (480) 636-4888 or visit www.equiant.com.