Consumer lending company SB Finance Co. Inc. announced it has partnered with FinScore Inc. to enhance its credit scoring efforts using alternative data.
SB Finance is a joint venture between Security Bank Corp. and Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri).
The lending firm said in a statement that by using FinScore’s “telco credit scoring solution,” SB Finance will be able to predict the creditworthiness of borrowers and assess their capability to avail of the company’s various loan offerings.
SB Finance didn’t disclose the financial amount of its contract with Finscore.
“With several Filipinos needing access to funds, being able to determine their creditworthiness is critical, as we rise from the economic effects of the pandemic,” SB Finance President and CEO, Abigail Marie D. Casanova was quoted in the statement as saying. “Through our collaboration with FinScore, more Filipinos will be able to avail of SB Finance’s services therefore improving financial inclusion to those with no credit footprint.”
SB Finance said FinScore’s solutions are based on over 400 telecommunication variables such as voice usage, top-up patterns, duration of calls and location, among others.
“Derived through cutting-edge systems, the telco score has high predictive power and offers unique data about consumers,” the company said.
With the growing needs of enterprises to grow their businesses and address the market’s needs, FinScore continues its pursuit of developing and providing analytics solutions for a more inclusive scoring, SB Finance said.
Christo Georgiev, FinScore country manager and chief strategy officer, was quoted in the statement as saying that his company and SB Finance “share the same mission of making credit accessible to Filipinos who lack financial history.”
“This partnership will pave way for the underserved markets to gain confidence and establish creditworthiness powered by alternative data and predictive analytics,” Georgiev added.