Case Study

How Bud helped TotallyMoney grow financial inclusion and engagement

We helped independent UK credit broker TotallyMoney to improve access to credit for ‘thin file’ customers and support those who are struggling with repayments and other financial commitments.

"Too often in the credit market, data works against people. So they’re matched with the wrong products or declined altogether.

Open banking is a huge opportunity, and our partnership brings this data into the lending ecosystem, enabling deeper insights for customers into their financial position and enabling better borrowing habits.

This empowers our customers to step from ‘just about managing’ to moving their finances forward."

Alastair Douglas
CEO, TotallyMoney

Problem

TotallyMoney, a well-known independent credit broker in the UK, was keen to help ‘thin file’ customers who might be finding it difficult to access loans because of their short or limited credit history. Credit reference agency data alone often couldn't provide a complete picture of an applicant’s financial position, leading those customers to miss out on much-needed financial assistance.

In addition, TotallyMoney set out to support customers struggling to make their loan repayments and other key financial commitments. They needed a solution that would make transactional data work in favour of those vulnerable customers.

Solution

Using our lending and credit risk solution, Assess,TotallyMoney’s customers connect their accounts via open banking.

Our market-leading transaction enrichment makes sense of the raw transactional data to provide a more holistic view of applicants’ financial standing. This means that participating lenders can make appropriate pre-approved loan offers within TotallyMoney’s comparison service.

To help struggling customers, TotallyMoney uses our money management and personalisation solution, Engage. Its ‘Monitor’ feature helps customers to understand their disposable income, as well as any forthcoming payments each month. This enables customers to get a handle on their commitments and to improve their financial wellbeing.

Outcome

Consumers looking for a loan via TotallyMoney are invited to connect their accounts via open banking in order to unlock pre-approved loan offers from lenders on TotallyMoney’s panel.

Lenders have reported that 75% of transactional data-enhanced loan applications are processed in less than 15 minutes, versus 80% of applications processed in 60 minutes or less with credit reference agency data alone.

In addition, TotallyMoney has reported a 22% increase in approval rates from those lenders accepting enriched transactional data. One affiliated lender reported that 75% of customers who shared transactional data via open banking are seeing better rates and APRs as a result of connecting their accounts.

Customers connecting their accounts via open banking as part of TotallyMoney’s ‘Monitor’ feature have proved 20% more likely to take out loan offers through the broker. This demonstrates a boost in engagement powered by the money management feature.

When TotallyMoney asked Monitor users to rate the feature, more than half (51%) gave a five-star rating, testament to the value of their transaction analysis-powered financial wellbeing feature.

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Industries

Credit broking, personal finance management

Goals

Speed up application processing time, improve access to lending for 'thin file applicants' and grow engagement

Products used
75% of affiliated lenders' loan applications are processed in under fifteen minutes
Transaction enrichment-powered money management feature users are 20% more likely to take out loan offers
51% of users who rated the money management feature gave it a five-star rating