How to automate NCR affordability assessments

What the regulations ask for

The National Credit Act requires a credit provider to assess whether a consumer can afford a new credit agreement before entering into it. The affordability assessment regulations set out how: establish the consumer’s gross income, account for existing obligations, and work out discretionary income after minimum living expenses.

Income is usually evidenced by the latest payslips or bank statements. Reading those documents by hand is where most of the time goes.

Where manual assessments slow down

Re-keying statements

An analyst opens a 15-page statement, finds the salary credits and debit orders, and types them into a spreadsheet. Every file repeats the same work, and every re-key is a chance for an error.

Spotting edited documents

An edited PDF can look perfect on screen. A visual check will not reliably catch a changed figure or a payslip that does not match the account it is paid into.

“Affordability is a calculation. The slow part is getting trustworthy numbers into it.”

What to automate first

1. Income from payslips and statements, extracted and categorised.
2. Existing obligations from debit orders on the statement and the credit report.
3. A check of declared expenses against the minimum expense norms.
4. An audit trail of every figure: which document it came from and who approved it.

Keep the evidence

Record which documents were used, what was extracted and who approved the result. If the regulator or a consumer asks how you reached a decision, the file should answer for itself.