Banks tracking your data to know about repayment capacity

 

Borrowing has so far been unthinkable for those without a credit history, but this is now on its way to becoming history. Lenders are reviewing various other data points to lend to those without a credit record.

Currently, the number of people who have a credit record is lower than those who don't. Banks are tapping other details of their existing customers, who have not yet borrowed and checking to see if there is a possibility of lending to such customers.

Banks are offering easy-to-handle products like personal loans to their existing customers. This is also facilitating a faster approval and disbursement process for loans.

A senior official from a leading private bank said that lenders are looking up salary account balance, transaction from the account and utility bill payments, to name a few. These data points can help offer a low-ticket loan like a personal loan or pre-qualified mortgage loan

He added that banks are also looking up the personal data of customers without a credit history, since the lack of a credit record could be a result of these customers choosing not to avail of credit, even though they were eligible for it. The data being tracked includes the average account balance maintained by the customer at the end of the month, and the ratio of the percentage of monthly account balance against their monthly pay .

UNDER INSPECTION

As banks have started tracking more than one source to collect information for credit scoring, individuals need to be more careful about what their personal life indicates about their repayment capability to a possible future lender.

EXCEPTION, NOT RULE

Despite the advancements in this area, credit evaluation using secondary information is still at a nascent stage. Only the big banks are using this method to lend to their existing customers. At the industry level, most loans are still being offered the old-school way