Cover Story: Scoring with big data

By Tan Zhai Yun

The exponential rise in the use of smartphones, mobile wallets and e-payment systems has given birth to a new technology that uses big data to determine credit scores. The technology has been lauded for helping the underbanked gain access to credit, representing the first step towards financial inclusion.

The use of non-traditional data to churn out credit scores is now expanding beyond the underbanked and unbanked to reach even well-banked individuals who already have a credit score. This pool of data, which is used to discover patterns of users’ repayment behaviour based on their mobile phone and social media usage, is playing an increasingly important role in Asia alongside traditional credit scores.

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