Plend

Challenge

Access to affordable lending solutions is vital for an individual’s financial stability and mental wellbeing. However, 1 in 3 people are unable to access affordable lending solutions and over 20 million people in the UK are estimated to be excluded from mainstream credit. Those on the lowest incomes are hit the hardest – they are seen as higher risk to traditional lenders and many are forced to turn to high-cost credit to meet their basic needs, creating a cycle of debt and financial exclusion.

Approach

Using social investment from Ascension’s Fair by Design fund, Plend uses its open banking technology, The PLEND Score®, to analyse a wide range of up-to-date customer data, accurately measuring affordability based on tangible figures and patterns. As a result, Plend is able to look beyond people's credit scores and unlock fair and competitive market rates for their customers.

Having a personalised approach provides a much more accurate measure of an individual’s ability to borrow rather than traditional credit scoring that is over-indexed to an individual’s financial history and makes assumptions about where you live and how you spend your money.

Revenue Model

Plend offers interest rates between 9%-28% on their loans which supports its revenue requirements.

Impact

Plend has helped customers who have accessed debt consolidation loans (47% of their customer base) to save over £1,320,000 in interest, which can also be expressed as a saving of £2,009 per customer. Of the customers served, 80% would otherwise be financially excluded due to limitations in the data held on them.

It has also introduced Social Credit, a dedicated not-for-profit capability across England and Scotland with a focus on providing interest-free loans to people who are traditionally locked out from accessing it.

Plend’s inclusive approach to lending is helping to tackle financial exclusion, offering fairer, more socially responsible borrowing to a range of underserved audiences in the UK.