Kreditech: A credit check by social media

By: Jeevan Vasagar

The analysis begins with the first keyboard strokes of a borrower seeking a loan on Kreditech’s site, gathering clues about personality and identity — such as whether someone types in their name or pastes it in.

Copying and pasting a name suggests a fraudulent bot rather than a human. A person desperate for money is likely to jump straight to the sign-up page rather than spending time reading the website. Would-be borrowers are asked to share their browsing history, giving the company access to their shopping habits and whether they spend time on websites that might make them a credit risk, such as online gambling.

Kreditech, a Hamburg-based start-up that offers credit and banking products to people with little or no credit history, has attracted attention from investors including JC Flowers and Peter Thiel. The fintech company’s vision is to build an “Amazon for consumer finance”, expanding to offer products for personal finance management, overdrafts and payment services…read more.