BrazilNBBI launches innovative Modura solution for financial caretakers
The Dutch Industry Association for Financial Caretakers (NBBI) has launched Modura, a new solution that helps financial caretakers with seamlessly managing the finances of their clients – from taking control through to day-to-day oversight.
In the Netherlands, there are currently 250,000 individuals who are under some form of guardianship. Their situation of financial distress mostly follows from the loss of a job, but also can have to do with life changing events such as a divorce, sickness, an addiction, or mental issues.
The key role of a guardian (also known as a financial caretaker) is to take control over the finances of people under guardianship, both income and spending.
With almost 2,200 members representing the interests of 90,000 people under guardianship, the NBBI is the largest industry association for financial caretakers in the Netherlands.
“Our goal with Modura was to help our members gain access to a better payment solution than there previously was available in the market,” said Bas Benjamins, co-founder of the NBBI.
The backdrop: when financial caretakers need to open a new bank account for their clients, the onboarding time frame of traditional banks could last up to 30 days. Then, informing all relevant organisations to ensure funds would flow into the right (guardian) managed bank account could take another 30 to 45 days.
“That meant that the total time required for guardians to gain access to their clients’ funds and actively manage their finances could be as long as 75 days. That was way too long, especially given the fact that for people in financial distress, urgency is crucial,” emphasized Anton van den Ham, co-founder of the NBBI.
The NBBI spotted an opportunity to introduce a number of digital-enabled major improvements to the process. “The traditional process was too time consuming. Too many documents needed to be filled in.”
Modura
Enter Modura, a new solution that takes away the hassle for guardians, ensuring accounts – even multiple ones – can be opened much quicker.
Modura enables financial caretakers to open accounts and onboarding a client in a matter of hours. Modura helps create an expense account for caretakers to manage client income and payments, and an allowance account for clients so that they can pay their own personal payments. Client make their payments through a Visa debit card which is provided to them, and monitor their accounts though a special app.
With Modura being set up as a non-profit institution, the entire operation is managed at low cost. Financial caretakers do not face recurring costs for the solution, while the clients pay just €5 per month per account and a one-time €1,80 fee for onboarding and opening the accounts (cheaper than most banks).
The brainchilds
For the delivery of Modura, the NBBI is working closely together with Orenda Finance and Visa. The development and selection process was advised on by PaymentGenes Consultancy, which helped the NBBI work through the business case for Modura, design the operating model, find the right external partners, secure funding, and ensure the solution was successfully built.
Modura went live in January this year and has been well received by the community.
Benjamins: “The expertise of PaymentGenes Consultancy helped us navigate the complex world of payments and eventually got us what we needed to service our industry with a solution that our clients desperately needed.”
Paul Schreuders, Issuing Lead at PaymentGenes Consultancy, stated: “Modura takes away many pain points for financial caretakers in the Netherlands and offers the functionalities that the industry needs. The partnership between the NBBI, Orenda Finance and Visa not only signifies a step towards financial inclusion but also exemplifies the power of collaboration in addressing and overcoming sector-specific challenges.”
