Mapping the Future of Consumer Credit with Infact
The global credit market is colossal—so vast, in fact, that it underpins nearly every financial transaction in our day-to-day lives. Whether you’re buying a home, financing a car, or using a credit card, credit information is the backbone of these decisions. In the UK alone, almost £30 billion in consumer loans are issued every month, over 80% of UK adults hold a credit product, and there are nearly as many credit cards as there are people in the UK.
Despite the scale and importance of this market, lenders have been relying on outdated instruments that were revolutionary in their time but now struggle to keep up with the dynamic landscape of modern finance. Traditional Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs) are one those old tools, offering a limited and sometimes inaccurate view of the world. The more you look into it, the clearer it becomes that insufficient innovation is the reason why both lenders and consumers often find themselves lost, frustrated, and unable to reach their financial destinations.
The Problem: An Outdated Map Holding Us Back
CRAs are vital to any growing market because they provide lenders with access to additional customer data that they may not have on their own. This data helps lenders evaluate – amongst other things – whether the customer and their intentions are real (fraud risk), if they can afford the loan (affordability), and the probability of the debt being repaid (credit risk).
Today financial products are more accessible and deeply integrated into our daily lives. Credit cards live in our phones, we shop and pay online, use facial recognition at checkout, and receive loan and insurance offers tied to the purchases we make. To keep up with the pace of product innovation, lenders are forced to consider a broader array of factors in their credit decisioning processes. Modern lenders are turning to alternative (i.e. utility bills and rental payments), contextual (consumer-permission bank account data and payroll information) and proprietary data (i.e. real-time signals derived from novel product structures) to refine their pricing strategies and improve credit assessments.
However, traditional CRAs – which have dominated the landscape for decades – still rely on data structures and methods that haven’t evolved with the times or adapted to the needs of modern lenders. For lenders dealing with increasing volumes and shorter maturity loans, the data furnishing process and developer experience remain unnecessarily complex and outdated.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is one of many instances where modern services are reshaping how consumers interact with credit, yet CRAs struggle to integrate this data meaningfully. As a result, consumers using BNPL often miss out on the benefits of building a credit profile, while lenders are left with an incomplete picture of the consumer’s creditworthiness and credit history.
To imagine the world of a modern lender, consider perhaps the frustrating experience of trying to visit London using a physical map without any knowledge of the latest tube strike or delays on the District line. You might get around to seeing Big Ben and Oxford Street, but you’d be in a sweat from having chosen the Central line in peak rush hour. Worse even, the wasted time planning and dealing with delays likely means that you wouldn’t have had the chance to think about taking a stroll through Notting Hill.
For millions of people, these outdated maps create real problems. In 2024, over 16 million UK adults—about 25% of the population—had non-standard credit histories (i.e. thin file, credit impaired or highly indebted), making it difficult for them to access the financial products they need. Among these, 5 million are “credit invisible,” unable to secure loans because the old system can’t see them. The real-world impact of this is that some consumers might find themselves locked out of opportunities they deserve or saddled with mispriced credit offers that don’t reflect their true financial health.
At the same time, for lenders, this can also mean taking on unnecessary risks, missing out on potential customers, and making decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information. Not only does a modern approach to Credit referencing improve current financial products but also allows us to build new products that better serve our modern needs. In this instance, imagine a world without innovations like Uber, Deliveroo or Strava or, more importantly, one where pilots and emergency crews struggle to get to their destinations on time, all because we chose to stick to physical maps.
Source: ChatGPT
“Navigating by the compass in a sea of clouds over Spain is all very well, it is very dashing, but […] you want to remember that below the sea of clouds lies eternity.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, from Wind, Sand and Stars
The Solution: Infact – A Modern GPS for Affordability and Credit data
That’s where Infact comes in. Founded on the idea that existing credit referencing platforms are not serving the needs of borrowers and lenders in the modern age, their platform is designed to provide real-time, accurate, and detailed insights into a person’s financial health. At the same time, Infact’s modern cloud platform empowers lenders to develop more innovative financial products and offer them on fairer terms. So, instead of struggling with a compass, chart, and intuition, lenders get access to a GPS—one that updates in real time, understands the nuances of every street, and guides them smoothly to their destination.
By leveraging Infact’s richer, more accurate affordability and credit data, lenders can confidently expand their customer base. Enhanced affordability assessments allow lenders to better manage customer funnels, reducing declines at the quote stage while avoiding premature pre-approvals. This also spares borrowers the frustration of unsuccessful credit applications. Complementary to this, real-time credit data enables lenders to quickly spot signs of financial distress, such as loan stacking or missed payments, improving profitability while minimizing consumer harm by avoiding lending to those who can’t afford it. These data-driven strategies align with modern lenders’ increasing reliance on advanced analytics and AI for decision-making.
More importantly, by enabling lenders to make better and faster decisions, they’re helping to unlock financial opportunities for millions of people. Imagine a world where getting a loan doesn’t involve weeks of waiting or being unfairly judged by outdated criteria. That’s the world Infact is working to create.
Why Infact is the Future of Financial Navigation
Infact stood out to us not just for their innovative technology, but for the clarity and foresight of their vision. Founders Will Mason and Andy Milligan have spent over a decade working together in the consumer credit market, initially building Open Banking and credit comparison solutions at Runpath and later working hands on with credit reporting systems at Experian.
From our early meetings and investment in 2022 it was clear to us that the pair knew exactly where the current approach was falling short. They’d seen firsthand how slow, manual processes can choke the life out of modern financial transactions and where modern alternatives create frustration and poor experiences for both lenders and consumers.
Since then, they’ve gone on to become the UK’s first FCA-authorised real-time credit bureau and have onboarded their first cohort of clients and data-sharing partners. All while bringing together a team with deep industry knowledge and technical expertise spanning credit markets, Open Banking, and payments from companies like Visa, Microsoft, Paypal, Credit Kudos and Experian.
A World Where Everyone Has a Better Map
The current credit reference approach is holding back economic growth and individual financial well-being, while not adequately addressing growing consumer duty concerns of regulators around the world. By building a platform that can process and deliver real-time credit information, Infact is removing this bottleneck and setting the stage for a more dynamic and efficient global financial system that is also fairer and better protects the consumer.
As we look to the future, it’s clear that the financial market is undergoing a profound transformation. Just as GPS technology has revolutionised how we navigate the physical world, Infact is set to revolutionise how we navigate the world of credit. For lenders, this means reduced risks and greater opportunities. For consumers, it means better access to the financial products they need, with decisions based on a true understanding of their financial health.
We’re excited to partner with Infact on this journey. The future of finance is about more than just finding your way—it’s about having the right tools to get there.
If you’re building innovative credit products and want to explore how modern data and infrastructure can help, reach out to Will at Infact.
