TotallyMoney and Bud Financial in FinTech synergy to safeguard UK consumers’ credit scores
TotallyMoney, a FinTech player known for its personalised finance app, and Bud Financial, a data intelligence platform, have joined forces in the pursuit of aiding UK consumers to shield their credit scores and overall finances.
With the threat of mounting interest rates and inflation, pushing an increasing number of UK consumers towards financial hardship, tech-savvy lenders and FinTech maestros strive to give consumers fair access to appropriate financial products by unlocking comprehensive financial data.
TotallyMoney, serving over five million UK consumers with credit score improvement and financial progression, has opted for Bud Financial’s platform to drive its new service. This service harnesses AI to empower consumers with comprehensive financial data through open banking, facilitating proactive financial management.
Bud Financial’s AI system enables TotallyMoney to leverage real-time open banking data, thus offering predictive insights and proactive bill tracking to consumers, helping them keep track of ongoing and future payments. This collaboration aims to improve and protect customers’ credit scores by enabling effective bill management.
Bud’s AI models draw from the latest 12-month banking data of consumers, identifying recurring payments such as utilities, subscriptions, rent, and more. This information allows TotallyMoney to provide insights for better financial planning and understanding of how their financial choices impact their credit score. The service is free for TotallyMoney’s customers.
TotallyMoney, an intentional FinTech company, focuses on the 20 million financially underserved adults in the UK. The free app provides users control over their data, and offers personalised plans and insights. It partners with top-tier and specialist lenders to provide an array of products tailored to help the financially underserved.
TotallyMoney initially integrated Bud’s platform in January 2023. This resulted in a significant efficiency in the time to process loan applications, with 75% being processed in 15 minutes or less.
TotallyMoney CEO Alastair Douglas said, “For decades, credit report data has remained largely unchanged, having not kept up with social and economic changes. The information is slow to update, and therefore doesn’t provide a fair representation of somebody’s ability to manage and repay what they borrow — having implications for both customers and lenders.
“By integrating open banking data, powered by Bud, we’re bridging the financial inclusion gap for the 29 million UK adults who are classified as under-served or financially fragile. Banks now have better insights to assess a customer’s eligibility, while our latest feature helps customers manage their money and protect their credit score, helping them unlock a life of more choices.”
Bud Financial CEO and Founder Ed Maslaveckas added, “AI is enabling businesses and lenders to generate unique customer insight based on their data. Now, by combining a number of models, we’re able to help our clients treat their customers as individuals.
“At Bud, we bring together data, internal and external, and help our clients understand who their customers are. Whether institutions are looking to create better lending outcomes or make every customer interaction data-driven, we’re here to deliver proven returns. We’re proud to enable TotallyMoney to build smart money management tools for their customers. Supercharging affordability and driving financial resilience is what we do.”
Keep up with all the latest FinTech news here
Copyright © 2023 FinTech Global
