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Thursday, December 04, 2025 | 01:46 PM ISTहिंदी में पढें
84% lenders use both traditional, alternative data to underwrite borrowers
Alternative data includes insights such as phone usage, utility payments, e-commerce transactions, social media activity, employment history, and in some cases, email and SMS data
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While traditional data sources such as credit bureau reports and income verification documents continue to dominate, other emerging alternative sources such as location data, SMS data and third-party app usage are being increasingly used by companies.
More than eight out of 10 lenders in the country use a combination of traditional and alternative data to underwrite their customers, using sources such as credit bureau reports, location and SMS data, payment transaction behaviour and third-party app usage, among others.
Only 3 per cent of such lenders rely on alternative data alone to make a lending decision, according to data from the Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), a fintech self-regulatory organisation (SRO-FT).
Alternative data includes insights such as phone usage, utility payments, e-commerce transactions, social media activity, employment history, and in some cases, email and SMS data.
