Salad Money Impact Report 22-23 WEB - Flipbook - Page 16
UNIQUE COLLABORATION WILL
UNLOCK INSIGHTS INTO KEY
WORKERS’ FINANCIAL
SITUATIONS AND BEHAVIOUR
Researchers throughout the UK will be able to use
anonymised data about the use of consumer credit for
analysis and research, thanks to our collaboration with The
Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC).
With Salad now receiving around
50,000 applications for credit every
month, we use Open Banking data
and our own software and customer
team to make lending decisions,
rather than credit scoring. And with
around 1,500 bank transactions to
analyse for each applicant, this vast
swathe of data unlocks insights not
available to traditional lenders which
don’t use Open Banking:
“We have a unique dataset of
non-personally identi昀椀able
information which, when analysed
in aggregate, gives a rich, detailed
and comprehensive picture of the
spending patterns and 昀椀nancial
behaviour of hundreds of thousands
of people,” says CEO, Tim Rooney.
“Open Banking access gives us the
means to make a careful and fair
assessment of every applicant’s
ability to repay the credit they apply
for,” he adds. “While we cannot o昀昀er
a loan to everyone who applies – it
wouldn’t be responsible to do so – we
use the information they give when
16
applying to help applicants in other
ways, for example by highlighting
bene昀椀ts they appear to be due but
not claiming, and bespoke support.
“Our commitment to 昀椀nancial
inclusion has always included
using anonymised and nonpersonally identi昀椀able information
from applicants and customers
to paint a picture of their 昀椀nancial
circumstances. The University of
Edinburgh has conducted two
analyses of this data and we have
collaborated with the University of
Bristol’s Personal Finance Research
Centre and with Responsible
Finance and other community
lenders.”
We announced the Data Licensing
Agreement in summer 2023.
The Consumer Data Research Centre
(CDRC) is based at University College
London, Liverpool University and
Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
“The agreement will result in a
monthly stream of more than
three million records, from several
thousand customers and applicants,
through secure download to CDRC,”
adds Rooney. “Opening the doors to
this data will give the experts from
the Consumer Data Research Centre
and researchers across the UK new
insights and we’re excited to be
working with Professor Paul Longley
and his colleagues.”
Prof Paul Longley, CDRC Director,
said: “Smart data are key to
better understanding of 昀椀nancial
precarity and personal 昀椀nance. The
anonymised Salad data will provide
researchers with a rich and detailed
picture of the circumstances of many
of those worst a昀昀ected by the cost
of living crisis. This is an extremely
welcome addition to CDRC’s personal
昀椀nance data, for the bene昀椀t of the
entire UK research community.”
Fair Lending for Key Workers
