- Property lending platform, LendInvest, has teamed up with challenger credit reference agency, Credit Kudos, to gain greater insights into customers and offer a faster, more seamless service.
- The partnership utilises Open Banking data and Credit Kudos’ categorisation and risk insights to offer LendInvest the most accurate view of an applicant’s financial situation.
- Underwriting times for the applicant’s financial history review have been reduced to just 5 minutes; Open Banking conversion rates are up 26 percentage points.
Partnership between fintechs LendInvest and Credit Kudos will offer brokers and customers a seamless, more secure service, as well as enabling LendInvest to make more informed lending decisions through Open Banking insights.
LendInvest is a tech-driven property finance platform dedicated to offering property professionals a simpler and more flexible way to access commercial property finance. It selected Credit Kudos to speed up its time-to-decision with a smoother customer journey, and to enhance affordability and credit risk assessments using Open Banking-enabled risk insights.
Unlike traditional credit assessments, Credit Kudos uses Open Banking data to provide lenders with a holistic, up-to-date view of an individual or business’ current financial situation. Leveraging both bank transaction data and loan outcome data, it produces insights to help lenders make more informed credit decisions.
Credit Kudos’ technologies enable a much smoother experience for both the customer and lender; removing the need to manually upload documents, and allowing lenders to automate more of the underwriting assessment process. Already, LendInvest has seen a 50% reduction in assessment times.
Open Banking insights are also helping LendInvest open up its offerings to a wider audience to support those it couldn’t previously serve, such as self-employed and sole traders who may not have conventional income patterns. This smoother, faster application process has also already delivered a 26 percentage point increase in Open Banking conversion rates since going live in February.
Arman Tahmassebi, COO of LendInvest, commented: “Getting rid of the manual documentation process has allowed us to offer a far faster and more convenient service. Although we have been using Open Banking for two years, this new partnership with a like-minded fintech has allowed us to take it to the next level and really reap the benefits of the technology.
“The greater insights are empowering us to make better informed, faster lending decisions to more people. We have been particularly impressed with the seamless integration of Credit Kudos into our system - the new dashboard is highly intuitive and it's already helping us serve more customers.”
Credit Kudos, founder and CEO, Freddy Kelly, added: “Like LendInvest, we are committed to making credit applications smoother and fairer for both the lender and applicant, so this partnership is a natural fit.
“Open Banking technology is transformative for lenders who want to make smarter and faster decisions to better serve their customers. With our technology in place, lenders can automate the underwriting process and get a far more accurate picture of an applicant’s true financial position. It not only helps them lend responsibly but also opens up their service to underserved customers who may not have traditional income patterns, such as sole traders.”
Credit Kudos’ technology is fully integrated within LendInvest’s application process for buy-to-let mortgages. It will be rolled out and integrated within additional services in the near future.
