Nova — the voice agent
Nova answers inbound borrower calls and places outbound first-party collections calls, negotiating hardship arrangements and cures within the lender's bounds and closing the call to a recorded outcome.
Nova takes the phones in both directions. She answers borrowers who call in and places outbound first-party collections calls, and in either direction she verifies the borrower, explains the account in plain language, and resolves the matter on the call — a payment today, a scheduled payment, a split cure, a deferral, a hardship arrangement, a promise to pay — while consent, disclosure, timing and hardship rules are enforced in real time.
Most calls end without anyone else involved. A person is brought in when the borrower asks for something outside the lender’s configured bounds, or when the call turns into a matter a person should own.
A borrower calls in
- Identity verified before anything about the account is said
- Balance, due date, payoff and schedule answered from the record
- Payment taken, or an arrangement agreed and recorded
- A callback booked inside permitted hours
- The reason for the call recorded as an interaction on the case
The platform calls out
- One eligible task, one work packet, one authorized destination
- Every pre-dial control resolved before the provider is invoked
- The arrears worked toward an arrangement the borrower can sustain
- The outcome recorded, and follow-up work opened
Inbound and outbound are the same agent
The same agent, the same authority and the same evidence, whichever side placed the call. On an inbound call she is handed the borrower and has to establish who they are before anything about the account is said; the borrower sets the agenda and she answers it.
On an outbound call she does not choose who to ring: she receives one eligible task and one signed work packet carrying the destination, purpose, scripts, allowed facts, tools, autonomy ceiling and stop conditions.
Eight things a borrower can ask for
Nova handles these requests on the call wherever the lender’s policy permits:
| The borrower wants to | Nova can |
|---|---|
| Pay in full today | Take payment on a saved instrument with explicit authorization and a full read-back — or send a secure payment link on consented SMS. |
| Pay soon | Schedule a future payment, or record a promise-to-pay through the same guardrails as any promise. |
| Pay what they can | Take a partial payment above the policy floor, or agree a split cure — part today, remainder scheduled — with a small tolerance for good-faith shortfalls. |
| Catch up without paying now | Agree a one-payment deferral, with the interest effect disclosed as interest — never dressed up as a fee. |
| Pay the loan off | Quote the exact same-day payoff — a figure, not an estimate — and take payoff or pay-ahead with fresh authorization. |
| Fix a mistake | Cancel an in-flight payment, or route a completed one for reversal with the original confirmation attached. |
| Understand the account | Answer verified-borrower questions from the account facts in her packet — balance, due dates, per-diem, remaining installments. |
| Talk later | Schedule her own callback inside permitted hours, or book a human callback in the team’s working window. |
A conditional courtesy fee waiver is also available when policy permits. Identity verification, with fallback factors where needed, comes before account-specific answers. New card or bank details are entered through a secure payment link, keeping them out of the voice conversation.
Negotiate hardship within the lender’s bounds
Nova starts with what is owed, listens to what the borrower can manage, and works toward an arrangement they can sustain. Catch-up schedules, reduced payments and interest concessions that fit the lender’s policy can be agreed and recorded on the call.
The borrower’s offer is recorded in their words and identified as their proposal. The platform checks it against the lender’s promise policy during the conversation:
- Final payment falls within the permitted period
- The arrangement covers the required share of arrears
- The number of instalments is within the limit
- The current amount owed is available
An offer outside those limits goes to a named approver with the call and supporting evidence. The borrower is told it is under review. Settlements and refinancing also require approval, as does any arrangement where the current amount owed cannot be read.
Handle objections and bring in the right person
Nova has worked responses for around forty common objections and requests, including I already paid, that is not my debt, I lost my job, talk to my husband, take me off your list and how do I know you are real. Each response includes the required disclosures and the point at which a specialist takes over.
Bankruptcy, attorney representation, a deceased-borrower notification, a request to stop contact or self-harm distress immediately takes precedence over collection. Nova records the report and routes the protective action or specialist work it requires.
Credit-reporting decisions stay subject to separate review, so Nova cannot promise a furnishing outcome. A third party who answers the phone receives no confirmation that a debt exists. A borrower who asks for a person receives a handoff with the conversation context.
Check permission before every outbound call
Each outbound call needs permission for one eligible task and one destination. Before dialing, the platform checks the verified number, local time, consent, calling frequency, restrictions and current case and debt status. A failed check or missing required fact blocks the call before it reaches the calling provider.
The checks account for representation, bankruptcy, disputes, stop-contact requests and prior promises or payments. The lender configures counsel-approved rules for the call’s purpose and for artificial or prerecorded voice. Nova follows those rules during the call, including identity verification and the disclosures required before account information can be shared.
Recording consent is captured separately when recording is enabled. Raw payment credentials and government identifiers stay out of the model’s context, and a borrower’s instructions cannot override lender policy.
Stop calling if authorization and the actual dial disagree
The platform checks the number again immediately before dialing. Changed contact details void the authorization, preventing permission for an old number from being used for a new one.
Afterward, each actual dial is matched to its authorization. Two findings automatically suspend that agent’s calling until a person clears it:
- The call has no matching authorization.
- The destination differs from the authorized number, or the platform cannot verify the match.
This gives operations an immediate stop while they investigate an unauthorized or misdirected call.
Record the outcome and carry the work forward
Each call ends with a recorded result that updates the case and starts the necessary follow-up:
| Conversation outcome | What gets recorded |
|---|---|
| No answer, busy or voicemail | Call outcome saved; contact history updated under policy. |
| Borrower asks to stop | Request recorded; consent or restriction workflow starts immediately. |
| Borrower disputes or reports bankruptcy | Linked specialist case and interim protection. |
| Borrower commits to dates | Promise proposal checked against policy and sent for review when required. |
| Borrower wants to pay | Payment taken through the permitted journey with separate authorization. |
| Borrower requests relief | Hardship case and proposed action for the applicable review. |
| Human requested | Warm or queued handoff with the call facts and transcript context. |
The case keeps the reason and permission for the call, the identity and disclosure checks, the consent record, actions taken and follow-up work. It also records the agent and script versions, any reviewer decision, and access rules for transcripts and recordings. Operations can explain why a call happened and what it did without reconstructing the account from a recording.
A dropped call keeps the work already done
Nova records protective requests, promises and callback bookings during the call, as they happen. A stop-contact request can take effect immediately, and a callback booking is confirmed before Nova tells the borrower it is booked. Those records survive if the call disconnects before she finishes.
If an outbound call ends without its final report, LendEasy reconstructs the outcome from the actions and requests already recorded. It checks unresolved payments with the payment provider, preserves payments already executed and raises review work for the team. Operations can pick up from what happened without charging the borrower again or losing a commitment made before the line dropped.
Check call quality before release
Each Nova release must pass a versioned evaluation suite of around three hundred complete conversations covering sixty-two behavioural requirements. The checks cover both the recorded result and how Nova conducts the conversation:
- Required outcomes and wording: the result recorded, mandatory disclosures, prohibited phrases, call endings and arrangement dates.
- Conversation conduct: responses to interruption, silence, hostility and pressure to move outside lender policy.
- Dates and honesty: date calculations include month-end and leap-year cases, and the suite rejects instructions that prevent Nova from honestly identifying herself as automated.
Before calling is available, the platform also checks that call outcomes and their follow-up actions agree. A missing or disconnected follow-up blocks startup, keeping the problem from reaching a borrower call.