United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) and Pintec Technology Holdings have launched a new joint venture, Avatec.ai.
The goal of this new platform is to support banks and finance companies with becoming more accurate and efficient with credit assessment of potential customers, including first time borrowers. This solution can also be extended to reach companies in sectors such as e-commerce, retail and travel that offer financial products like POS financing and personal loans.
Avatec analyses a broader set of data used by traditional evaluation processes for personal and business loans to give its clients deeper credit assessments. Alongside this, the company also implements AI, machine learning, and anti-fraud algorithms to verify the applicants credit quality.
The platform will initially deploy in Indonesia and then in other Southeast Asian markets over the next two years.
UOB head of regional digital bank and strategic initiatives Dennis Khoo said, “While UOB will benefit from Avatec’s unique credit assessment capability and advanced analytics, we expect other companies too will use the solution to seize new business opportunities and to spur more financial inclusion across the region.”
UOB is the majority stake holder in Avatec with a 60 per cent share and will invest up to $112m in the company over the next two years. The remaining 40 per cent is held by PINTEC.
Pintec founder and CEO William Wei said, “Our collaboration with UOB, a leading bank in the region, will assist us with the expansion of our FinTech solutions into Southeast Asia. This is the next phase of our strategy in the region, which is also in line with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”
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