Paragon Bank explain why they joined the Death Notification Service

We recognised the benefits of the service very early on. After meeting with EQ, we were keen to join their services to help support those suffering from bereavement and make the notification process easier. We also wanted to make sure the channels we offered for notifications were aligned to other financial institutions and also the vulnerability principles laid down by UK Finance.

The implementation of the DNS will reduce strain and complexity on the internal resource. Using the DNS will decrease the amount of phone calls and emails received from notifiers, therefore freeing up resource to be used elsewhere.

In terms of our customer base and the friends and family members of our deceased customers, using DNS reduces the need for repetitive difficult and emotional conversations. The time taken to notify financial institutions/service providers will also be reduced. What might have taken up to 3 hours (to make 20 notifications) can be done in a few minutes on the DNS website. And unlike contact centres, the DNS website is available 24/7, 365 days a year so notifiers can use this service at a convenient time for them.

When it came to the process of joining the service, EQ have a project team in place to support you when an issue is identified. They quickly worked with our team to resolve this. Other than the initial engagement all of our interactions have been remote due to COVID-19. This didn’t pose any problems and the timelines were maintained as if both business were in business as usual times.

The more organisations who join DNS, the better for the notifiers but also for all the members. The service eases the strain of making notifications and should hopefully encourage increased notifications as more people use the service. And as mentioned before, the benefits are clear and members/notifiers will continue to benefit if more businesses join up.