Mocasa Innovates Credit Payment Sphere with Telco-Based Credit Scores by FinScore

In its sophomore year in the business, Mocasa doubles down on its commitment to help bridge the financial gap in the country. Through its 0-interest credit payment service, the Philippines-based fintech platform supplies a “smart” and fitting credit line to its users that is adjusted based on their spending habits and repayment behavior.

“How you behave with the money you have is what matters to us,” says Julien Chien, Mocasa Chief Operating Officer. “Credit history checks are a safeguard for lenders as much as it’s a hindrance for the mass market. Delivering the happy medium is what fuels our hunger for innovation.”

Since launching to the local market, Mocasa has tapped alternative credit scoring company FinScore to engineer bespoke credit scoring models that mitigate risk while expanding market reach. FinScore harnesses AI and Telco Data to identify creditworthy individuals among the unbanked in less than a second.

“Alternative data is the new frontier for financial inclusivity,” says FinScore Country Head and Chief Operating Officer Christo Georgiev. “We help banks, lenders, and other financial institutions activate their full potential through unbiased credit scoring systems derived purely from AI, machine learning, and Telco Data. It’s a way to fairly assess sectors once tagged as high-risk or invisible.”

With more than 7 years of big data experience, FinScore has finetuned its credit scoring methods to a science. Its flagship Telco Data Credit Score draws its high predictive power from over 400 telecommunication variables – including voice usage, top-up patterns, call durations, SIM age, and location, and cutting-edge machine learning techniques like Gradient Boosting and Neural Networks.

Georgiev adds, “Creating a causality between how an individual uses their mobile and how their repayment habits are formed is almost unheard of. But FinScore has established a logical, data-driven relationship that all risk teams stand to gain from.

Around 44% of adult Filipinos have zero credit history. Interestingly, however, almost the entire population owns at least one mobile phone. As credit history remains a major obstruction to financial inclusion, FinScore hopes that more banks and financial institutions become emboldened to tap the telco data market. Serving more clients lends much-needed vigor to the Philippine financial ecosystem.