Fintech lender updates credit decisioning tech

MoneyPlace has upgraded its credit decisioning with Experian’s new decisioning platform, PowerCurve Customer Acquisition. It is reportedly the first lender in market to use the PowerCurve Customer Acquisition solution in Australia.

The fintech said the move came as it seeks to grow its white label “lending as a service” solution, currently used by lenders such as its parent company, Liberty Financial.

Stuart Stoyan, CEO of MoneyPlace, said: “As a fintech, outsourcing this sort of work hasn’t always been an option for us, but Experian’s cloud-based offering and SaaS model makes it infinitely more accessible, practical and feasible for companies like ours…

“We needed an enterprise-grade decisioning solution that was agile and flexible enough to allow us to run multiple score cards across multiple lenders, and Experian’s PowerCurve Customer Acquisition solution hit the mark,” he said.

“In short, we want to help our customers better serve their consumers, and upgrading and automating our system with Experian was the first step,” Mr Stoyan explained. 

Mathew Demetriou, general manager of decisioning and analytics at Experian Australia and New Zealand, also commented, saying: “By combining customer data at the point of application with internal, fraud and multi-bureau credit data, our solution helps MoneyPlace make more informed decisions in real time, based on a comprehensive view of the customer, while helping reduce their technology overheads.”

“This is especially important for all businesses right now, as a broad range of data sources is needed to appropriately assess a credit application but without comprising customer’s online experience.”

Increasing expectation of fast digital transactions

MoneyPlace’s move to improve customer experience echoes Experian’s recent Global Insights Report 2020, which surveyed 3,000 consumers and 900 businesses in 10 countries in September 2020.

It found that 60 per cent of people have higher expectations of their digital experience than before COVID-19. 

Experian’s research shows that in a pre-COVID-19 world, Australian companies most commonly used business and policy rules and decision management to assess customer creditworthiness. 

However, AI has now become the leading approach, with more emphasis placed on using on-demand cloud-based decisioning applications.

The report additionally explores consumer experience, finding that one in three customers are only willing to wait up to 30 seconds before abandoning an online transaction, especially when accessing their bank accounts, reporting most were concerned about protecting their financial data over other types of information. 

The report reveals how businesses are keeping up with consumer expectations, reporting that the top five initiatives among banks, providers and retailers are:

• Use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve customer decisions;
• Strengthening security of mobile and digital channels;
• Increasing digital acquisition and improving engagement;
• Automating customer decisions; and
• Understanding customer profiles (e.g. affordability, preferences, behaviours).

Commenting on the findings, MoneyPlace noted that the shift in approach to customer experience has evolved from a manual attitude to an increasing shift to AI as “businesses move away from survival mode and once again focus on growth”.

“They are re-imagining the customer journey and investing more in data and analytical solutions to achieve this. According to over half of the Australian business leaders surveyed, more budget will be allocated to analytics and ways to better assess customer creditworthiness,” the lender concluded.

 [Related: Businesses seek to automate credit decisions: report]