Fintech lender, Blue, has announced a new partnership with challenger credit reference agency and Open Banking provider, Credit Kudos, to extend its services to even more customers.

Blue is a technology-focused lender delivering innovative motor finance solutions for more than 150,000 customers. Leveraging Credit Kudos’ rich transaction data and insights via API integration with Blue's underwriting system, Blue will be able to better assess an applicant’s creditworthiness and affordability. This also means a move away from the manual collection of documents and uploading of bank statements to a faster, more secure application process through Open Banking.

Credit Kudos is a credit reference agency that combines Open Banking data with positive and negative credit outcome data to build rich credit risk insights, providing lenders with more accurate, up-to-date information. Unlike a traditional credit assessment, Credit Kudos provides a holistic view of an individual’s finances based on Open Banking data, helping lenders make a more informed decision. Using Credit Kudos’ insights, Blue is now able to make better and faster lending decisions, as well as safely increase lending to previously underserved segments.

Tiku Patel, CEO of Blue, commented: “Blue has been revolutionising the used car market by applying tech, data and analytics to deliver high levels of acceptances across the risk spectrum, fast decisioning and high levels of convenience. By partnering with another fintech, we can harness Credit Kudos’ insights to get a better real-time picture of affordability and allow us to lend responsibly to even more people, including under-served segments.” 

Freddy Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO, Credit Kudos, added: “Technology is transforming the lending sector to benefit both lenders and borrowers. We utilise Open Banking transaction data to help lenders get more accurate insights into an applicant’s true financial situation. This can help lenders to extend credit to people who may have a thin credit file, due to living abroad for example, or those with non-traditional income patterns, such as the self-employed or gig economy workers. We are excited to be partnering with another fintech to continue driving positive change in this sector.”