The new affordability score, CastScore, is not dependent on a customer having a history of credit in order to demonstrate creditworthiness and instead uses open banking technology to analyse a customer’s transactional data in real time and score their likelihood of paying credit back.

The AI that powers the CastScore technology has been validated on actual loan performance data, supplemented by expert analysis of spending trends, with high street banks. CastScore then merges this information with transaction analytics, sourced from an up-to-the-minute review of the customer’s actual income and spend as well as a more complex analysis of lifestyle and discretionary spending.

Says Phil Grady, CEO of Castlight Financial: “CastScore looks at and categorises every debit and credit and so it allows us to fill in the gaps in traditional credit data reporting and give customers, particularly those with thin files, a chance to be fairly assessed. Traditional credit scoring focuses on the consumer’s future credit behaviour being similar to their past performance through looking at historic credit reference agency data. The CastScore creates an up to date view of a consumer’s available disposable income and is able to predict future payment performance using more recent and relevant data.

For the first time someone with a thin credit file will be able to demonstrate, not only that they have a regular income coming in, and that they are financially robust, but they will be able to show a set of exemplary financial behaviours which make them a very good credit risk indeed. For a financially cautious millennial with little credit history but enough money in the bank, CastScore could be the difference between securing a mortgage or being stuck in the generation rent trap.”

But it’s not only the millions of people with little or no credit footprints who will potentially benefit from the CastScore technology. A predictive CastScore, even somewhere in the middle of the range, could be used to augment a traditional credit score and radically improve it.

CastScore is currently being piloted by three of the UK’s High Street banks.as a means of enfranchising customers or helping them augment their credit scores, Castlight Financial is already developing CastScore to provide the banks themselves with significant competitive edge in a busy market place.

Says Grady: “If traditional credit scoring provides a snapshot of a customer’s affordability, CastScore provides a 3D movie. That means that any bank offering CastScore to customers is going to be able to use the enhanced modelling system to identify risk more accurately and ultimately offer better credit terms. Credit risk teams will also be able to use CastScore for ongoing control and monitoring of customers’ finances, providing an early warning system of potential problems and allowing them to update their risk models and limits if needed.”