Changes in Japan’s Lending Laws Put Corticon to the Test

Read how Progress® Corticon® helped UCS, the financial services subsidiary of a large Japanese retail chain, speed credit application processing by 33% while complying with new lending laws.

In 2010, Japan’s government enacted a sweeping reform of its consumer lending industry. The Money Lending Business Act and Installment Sales Law placed a host of new rules on credit card issuers and consumer lenders, such as UCS Co., LTD, the financial services subsidiary of a large Japanese retail chain.

The business faced a major operational obstacle in complying with the new regulations, forcing UCS to switch to manual processing of applications, a time consuming and expensive process. The alternative solution, hard-coding the rules changes, would also be costly, yet temporary. Eventually, UCS selected Primagest, a Progress Partner in Japan, and K.K. Ashisuto, a leading independent supplier of software products, to provide maintenance and support for its Business Rules Management System (BRMS).

The Corticon-based BRMS has powered substantial gains in productivity in the credit card applicant screening process. The automatic screening rate has jumped from 8% of applications to 40%, a 5X increase. The application screening process is now 33% faster. This has an intangible but valuable effect on the customer experience and on the business as a whole.

Operationally, Corticon has contributed to greater flexibility and speed in making system changes. Software development costs have also dropped. Today, UCS is confident that it can respond quickly and inexpensively to changes in the regulatory scheme or its own management policies.

Download the customer success story, How UCS Makes Progress with Corticon