Irish personal finance provider Permanent TSB has signed up to use Experian’s banking categorisation technology to improve its customer lending journeys.

When a customer applies for a loan, Experian’s Categorisation as a Service (CaaS) automatically categorises the customer’s income and expenditure to allow lenders to quickly understand a person’s financial situation, ensure a robust lending decision and enhance the speed to a decision in the customer journey.

The solution produces high levels of accuracy, so Permanent TSB can treat customers fairly and deliver improved outcomes. The categorisation engine is an Irish-specific version and is the first in the market within the Republic of Ireland. It complements Experian’s UK version, but it can also recognise local country transactions and retailers following extensive training and development.

Categorised data will deliver an improved customer experience and serve people faster compared to traditional processes. The service will work across all product lines, including personal financial management. Financial wellbeing has never been more important, and categorisation will support the creation of many new products which leverage the data.

Experian’s Martin Hagerty said: “Financial providers have always sought to understand a person’s track record, their willingness to pay and their ability to pay. For many years, credit bureau data has helped answer two of these questions and now this service will help lenders to truly understand affordability.

“Categorising income and expenditure will allow lenders to see whether a person’s income is stable or indeed has fallen significantly, or if their burden of non-discretionary spending is beginning to become a problem for them. We’re pleased to be working with Permanent TSB so they can continue to make high-quality decisions on affordability at an improved speed.”

Mike Frawley, Chief Risk Officer at Permanent TSB, said: “This partnership with Experian builds on the bank’s digital focus, offers our customers quicker response times and enhances our automated lending journeys.”