P2P lender to smooth applications through Open Banking initiative

Lending Works has joined forces with challenger credit bureau Credit Kudos.

Practical applications of innovation linked to Open Banking are beginning to surface.

Peer-to-peer lending platform Lending Works has announced a partnership with disruptive credit bureau Credit Kudos, with a view to speeding up access to credit for a broader range of customers.

Credit Kudos is a technology-driven bureau that places greater emphasis on financial behaviour than incumbents in the field. Authorised as an Account Information Service Provider (AISP), it is able to access transactional data held by nine of the largest UK banks under the new Open Banking rules.

By using this technology, Credit Kudos hopes to empower Lending Works to offer instant, fully automated credit to 90 per cent of its borrowers. Approximately 60 per cent of those borrowers already enjoy fully automated (and so instantaneous) decision making, while the remainder are by necessity subjected to manual checks.

The partnership hinges on the ability to automatically populate forms, verify income and help demonstrate creditworthiness – all within a heartbeat.

“With Open Banking, customers now have control of their own financial data. Lending Works and Credit Kudos are using Open Banking to provide borrowers with a faster and easier way to verify income and demonstrate creditworthiness,” said Freddy Kelly, CEO of Credit Kudos.

Zopa, an older and larger rival to Lending Works, struck a similar partnership in early February when it teamed up with TrueLayer to support a revamped income verification process using data made available by Open Banking rules.

Lending Works boss Nick Harding called Credit Kudos an “early leader in their market” with a bright future in powering Open Banking services.