Credit Kudos, a challenger credit bureau developing a Financial Behaviour Score (FBS), has announced its FCA authorisation, putting its stake in the ground as a fully regulated Credit Reference Agency.
From its Dalston home in an old print workshop, Credit Kudos, founded by Freddy Kelly who will be speaking and exhibiting at the MALG Conference 2017, is building a new breed of credit
scoring system to tackle the problem of increasingly persistent consumer debt. Credit Kudos has built a process that monitors financial behaviour in real-time, reporting back a ‘Financial Behaviour Score’ that is truly reflective of a borrower. This includes data around whether the individual is saving and how regularly, how timely their bill payments are, whether they have set long-term financial goals, whether they set a monthly household budget, etc. Replicating the progress of Telematics in the car insurance industry, whereby inexperienced drivers are now able to demonstrate safe driving using sensors and GPS units fitted to their car, Credit Kudos is now giving borrowers access to credit without having to pay the exorbitant interest fees that lenders often impose because of their own inability to properly assess the borrower’s ability to repay.
Commenting on the announcement, Freddy Kelly, founder and CEO of Credit Kudos said: “Credit is a
crucial instrument for so many of us, and yet the tools we use to measure and assess borrowers are
stuck in the dark ages. Becoming a fully-fledged Credit Reference Agency is recognition of the great
work our team has put in over the past two years, work that has already helped thousands of people
establish their suitability for credit in a fair, fast and transparent way. With Open Banking just around the corner, we’ve seen adoption rates rapidly increasing. Impending regulatory changes such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are taking data from the large credit bureaus and giving it back to the customers who can truly harness its value.”
With the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) forcing the hand of financial institutions and
requiring customer data to be open and readily available, businesses such as Credit Kudos are poised to
deliver an entirely new banking experience.
Matt Nunn, Head of Credit for Bamboo, an early adopter of Credit Kudos, said “In our opinion, Credit
Kudos differentiates itself from alternatives with a truly slick customer journey and a powerful vision of how customers’ personal information can drive better outcomes.” He continued, “Credit Kudos has
enhanced their technology and product offering over the last year we have seen impressive
improvements in the quality and depth of information provided, and we are excited about the
innovation roadmap and us progressing to full scale roll-out of the product.”
Credit Kudos was the brainchild of Kelly and co-founder Matt Schofield, who first met studying
Computer Science and later went on to deliver Data Science solutions for Universal Music Group (UMG) and Silicon Valley transaction monitoring startup, TXN. The Credit Kudos platform has been providing
decision data for a group of pilot lenders since early 2016. Regulatory approval will enable the
company to broaden their reach and provide their Financial Behaviour Score to many more borrowers.