Equiniti Pancredit is putting responsible lending back at the heart of the consumer credit market with the launch of FairMoney, a loan comparison site that uses the applicant’s credit profile to match them to the best loans available for their circumstances.
Developed in partnership with Campaign for Fair Finance founder Dr Roger Gewolb, FairMoney is a new breed of comparison website, launched to provide a fairer offering to consumers in need of financial support.
Unlike the majority of comparison websites, FairMoney caters for the entire spectrum of applicants, including those who fall into subprime categories, have bad credit ratings or find it difficult to get accepted for a loan for other reasons. The site aims to help consumers find the most manageable and affordable loan, based on their unique circumstances, by listing the fairest loan products available to them.
Central to this process is Equiniti Pancredit’s MADE software, an intelligent decisioning solution that conducts an automated assessment to determine which loan products an applicant will qualify for and is likely to be granted. By performing this assessment, MADE hardwires ‘responsible lending’ into the search function, accessing the applicant’s credit profile (without leaving a footprint) and matching this data with the qualification criteria for each loan product, all of which are held in Equiniti Pancredit’s own lender database.
The solution also performs additional automated checks according to thousands of algorithmic disqualification factors, including whether the applicant passes a lender’s affordability assessment and matches employment criteria (such as time in current role, or time trading as self-employed). It also measures against other adverse credit factors such as outstanding County Court Judgements, or, for secured loans, whether the applicant’s property is acceptable to the lender. This data is used to filter all loan products available via the site in order to display only those which are appropriate in the applicant’s search results.
Graham Donald, Managing Director, Equiniti Pancredit says: “Today’s credit market is under real scrutiny; in the past consumers haven’t always been directed toward the most appropriate products for their needs. FairMoney addresses this issue head-on, and is a great example of what can be accomplished when a new level of intelligence is built into the search functions of comparison websites. This new service should save borrowers both time and money, as well as giving them peace of mind.”
FairMoney operates an Approved Lender Programme, requesting that all lenders subscribe to the FairMoney Promise. By doing so, the lender is accredited by the service and able to use the FairMoney Approved Lender logo.
Roger Gewolb, head of the Campaign for Fair Finance and co-founder of FairMoney adds: “This site is all about transparency. Many comparison sites present their deals according to which lenders pay them the most to advertise, not what is best for the customers. FairMoney is different. It does not guide visitors to the highest paying referrers, or to loans that the applicant won’t qualify for. We think the best way to make the market work for the most vulnerable, for people with poor credit ratings, or with the most urgent need for quick money, is to search and present the widest selection of responsible lenders and then rank and show them fairly, which is precisely what FairMoney delivers.”
To date, FairMoney has attracted more than 50 well known and responsible lenders to its ranks providing a wide range of products including secured and unsecured loans, guarantor loans, car purchase finance, logbook loans, payday loans and peer-to-peer loans.