Shawbrook Bank offers ClearScore customers incentive to share Open Banking data

UK-based Shawbrook Bank has joined ClearScore’s panel of personal loan providers and will offer eligible ClearScore customers a 1% rate reduction when they share their Open Banking data. Through financial marketplace ClearScore, Shawbrook will integrate Open Banking data with its own current decisioning technology to improve the way in which it assesses the creditworthiness of potential customers. By collecting real-time income and expenditure information at the point of application, the lender will be able to make more accurate lending decisions. The challenger bank confirmed it will only have one-time access to an applicant’s data to make a lending decision, “in line with Open Banking principles”. Any customer that provides Open Banking data at the point of application through ClearScore and is eligible for a personal loan with Shawbrook Bank, will receive a 1% APR reduction on the loan rate, with the offer available for a limited six-month period from March to August 2022. Paul Went, managing director at Shawbrook Bank Consumer, said: “The launch of Open Banking was designed to open up the market and make access to finances fairer for all. However, the use of transactional level data remained at the preserve of the franchise banks who owned the customer relationship. “The ability for us to now have access to the same powerful data marks a significant turning point, allowing us to enhance our credit decisioning to directly benefit our customers. The overarching benefit to all parties is that better credit decisions are made, providing customers with the best possible decision will foster long-term and profitable relationships.” Went said that its Open Banking-backed product with ClearScore will help it to deliver a “fair” application process, and come to “faster and even more reliable” decisions. According to research by ClearScore, using Open Banking to open up lending to just 5% of ClearScore’s underserved population would result in an additional £30 million in lending per month. Andy Sleigh, CEO of ClearScore UK, added: “By providing lenders like Shawbrook Bank with more information via our Open Banking integration, we are opening the credit market and supporting even more accurate lending decisions. “The technology behind Open Banking offers a mutual benefit to both the lender, with ambitions to help better serve a growing market, and consumers wishing to access finance that suits their needs and wants.”