Equifax UK has announced a strategic partnership with Render to launch a comprehensive data decisioning platform for lenders that uses Equifax credit bureau data and categorised Open Banking insights.  

The new platform - Clear Decision, powered by Render - will help lenders make more informed decisions based on customers’ individual financial circumstances, using a combination of Credit Reference and Open Banking data that provides an enhanced picture of affordability and creditworthiness. In particular, it will help lenders tackle the challenge of marginal credit applications.  

Currently, most lenders rely on bureau data at the front end of a customer journey, and only supplement this with granular Open Banking data to inform marginal or borderline cases. However, Clear Decision shifts this dynamic by automating the process of combining the data and therefore reducing manual underwriting time and errors.  

The solution enables improved decision-making efficiency across all asset classes, including mortgages, retail finance, motor finance and unsecured credit. It also helps lenders identify and tackle fraudulent applications. 

Stephen Maitland, Director of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at Equifax UK, said: “Lenders are facing increasing pressure to deliver better consumer outcomes so establishing a deeper understanding of customers’ affordability is increasingly important, particularly in the case of marginal lending decisions. There remains a significant opportunity across the industry to take better advantage of Open Banking data to aid decision making, and this new platform will help improve operational efficiency, broaden financial inclusion and enable lenders to approve more customers with confidence.” 

Jonathan Mascie-Taylor, Chief Commercial Officer at Render, said: “We already enjoy a strong partnership with Equifax as a provider to our lending business, Abound, making this new platform a natural extension given Equifax’s industry-leading Open Banking capabilities. Clear Decision has the potential to be a game-changing solution for lenders, and one that can help expand the accessibility of Open Banking to improve decision-making at scale.”