Begini Fires Up for Credit Scoring with Personality

"We believe people are diverse, and credit assessment should consider a diversity of data.”

Begini has begun its fintech journey with the launch of its credit scoring solutions for financial institutions.

With the B2B sector in its sights, the firm will target banks, digital lenders, challenger banks, and buy now pay later (BNPL) and asset financing firms.

The London-based fintech startup certainly has plenty of personality and explains: “Credit where it’s due. Our mission is to make credit scores that reflect real people. We believe people are diverse, and credit assessment should consider a diversity of data.”

According to its site, Begini uses “alternative data” such as smartphone, open banking, mobile money and telco data, and psychometric assessment for its services.

All of that is then analysed to provide insight around the consumer’s personality, behaviour, community, skills and experience. Information which it believes is “highly predictive” of creditworthiness and willingness to repay.

Via data science, the tech startup can assess personality traits. While technology is certainly on the menu, it has not forgotten the human aspect. It notes that character has been shown to be a “resilient and reliable indicator of someone’s likelihood to default”.

In terms of specific solutions, it mentions device data and psychometrics. (Begini also offers advisory services.)

For device data, Begini works with a variety of data sources from Android and iOS devices. The firm offers its own SDK which can be embedded on an existing app or through a white-label app to collect the data stored.

Begini’s psychometric assessment solution can create data through surveys that are targeted to character traits which are associated with credit worthiness.

This can be used to gain insight into personality, cognitive ability and skills. Begini’s role is to quantify behaviors and attitudes to build an applicant’s risk profile.

As the firm points out: “We are more than one number.”

According to Crunchbase, James Hume (CEO) is the founder. His experience includes working at Wameja, a joint venture in cross-border payments platform HomeSend; and at telecommunications company eServGlobal.

Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton is the Editor of eWeek UK. He has 18 years' journalism and writing experience. His career has taken him to China, Japan and the UK - covering tech, fintech and business. Follow on Twitter @TonyFintech.
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