FinScore, a Philippine fintech firm that provides alternative credit scoring through telco data and analytics, has partnered with Singapore-based Advance Intelligence Group’s ADVANCE.AI to expand across Southeast Asia.

In a joint statement, the two tech companies say their strategic data partnership will help boost financial inclusion and access to the unbanked and underbanked customers not just in the Philippines but in the wider Southeast Asian region.

ADVANCE.AI leverages artificial intelligence to provide digital transformation, fraud prevention, and process automation solutions for enterprise clients.

Under the new partnership, ADVANCE.AI's credit profiling and risk management capabilities will be strengthened by FinScore's digital solutions, specifically its Telco Data Credit Scoring and Fraud Prevention Solutions.

In addition to providing alternative credit scores for unbanked Filipinos, FinScore, a pioneer in lending and scoring of the unbanked in the Philippines, also has its own fraud detection tool, also based on alternative data.

FinScore, which has made a mission of filling the financial gap by providing inclusive credit scoring and improving access to financial services for consumers in the Philippines, claims to be the first company to determine the creditworthiness of 100% of mobile subscribers in the country, the most extensive reach in the Philippine alternative credit scoring market.

The partnership hopes to replicate FinScore’s success in the Philippines in other markets in the region.

Financial empowerment

"We are pleased to work with ADVANCE.AI in unlocking the financial empowerment of the unbanked customers in Southeast Asia,” says Christo Georgiev, FinScore country manager and chief operations officer.

With FinScore’s alternative data credit scoring expertise, Georgiev says ADVANCE.AI can uplift their clients’ acceptance rates while managing risk, especially financial institutions focused on buy now, pay later (BNPL) and digital lending services.

Michael Calma, ADVANCE.AI's country manager in the Philippines, underscores the need for those in the banking and financial services industry to digitally onboard and manage the risk profile of their customers “quickly, easily and accurately”, especially in the post-Covid world.

ADVANCE.AI has over a thousand enterprise clients across banking, financial services, payment, remittance and Web 3.0, including CIBI Philippines, Standard Chartered and Shopee.

The company says its one-stop platform has over a hundred data points covering credit bureau, telco, social networks, utility, internet protocol and geolocation, to provide accurate, real-time operational response and fraud detection.