Announcement: NestEgg Joins The Finance Innovation Lab!

We are delighted to announce that NestEgg has been selected for the 2019 Fellowship Programme at the Finance Innovation Lab.

We are now working with the Lab to create a more democratic, responsible and fair financial system.

Fellows are selected on the basis of their potential to positively disrupt the financial system and pioneer the responsible use of data-driven technologies in finance.

Introducing Financial Identities

The Fellowship enables us to build our consumer-facing proposition. Ultimately, this will create a marketplace of matching ethical lenders with pre-approved borrowers.

NestEgg financial identities put individuals in control of their own credit profiles. Individuals get to choose the data that best captures their unique circumstances, who vouches for it and who they share it with.

Fairer credit assessment

Currently, people can’t see how their data is used for lending decisions. In fact, that they can’t see much of the data at all. The system’s opaque. We don’t know how our data is shared, or even if it’s correct.

Credit bureau data on its own does not serve borrowers well.

Applicants are marked down because of a missed payment. Maybe they live in the wrong postcode. Perhaps a borrower has struggled with rolling voter registration. Credit scores fall because workers are paid weekly.

To be non-discriminatory credit decisions must consider new data such as income and expenditure patterns via Open Banking and social signals. This approach ‘thickens’ credit files, improving accept rates for low income borrowers.

Our decision engine utilises this extra data to support, rather than hinder, accept decisions. This means more loans at lower cost to those most in need.

Read more about our thinking behind the concept of financial identities here.

What’s next?

We are intensifying our consumer focus and building tools to help individuals manage their financial identity. The Lab fellowship provides access to experts and a testing ground for our ideas and technology.

Responsible financial providers will be the first to benefit from access to this pre-qualified group of borrowers.

Keep in touch to find out more.