Metrics Monthly Q2 | 22

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OpenBankVision enquiries surge following Apple's acquisition of Credit Kudos

LendingMetrics has reported a “sky- rocketing” in enquiries for its Open- BankVision (OBV) platform following the acquisition of Credit Kudos by Apple. Requests for information about the OBV platform by LendingMetrics have been significantly higher than they were prior to Credit Kudos’s purchase last month. The firm believes demand has been spurred by industry speculation that Apple intends to pivot Credit Kudos away from business sales to focus more on consumer activity. Credit Kudos specialised in Open Banking software for finance provid - ers, enabling them to measure finan - cial behaviour and accurately conduct credit assessments. Along with Lend- ingMetrics, it has been one of the main providers of such data, and commen- tators have speculated that the acqui- sition by Apple suggests the tech giant may plan to expand its lending services,

potentially paving the way for the Apple Card – available in the US since 2019 – to be released in the UK. LendingMetrics’ OBV platform allows lenders to paint a detailed picture of a consumer’s finance by using real- time banking data. The solution gives access to 90+ days of fully catego - rised data once consumers have con- firmed consent for read-only access to their accounts. It then interrogates the accounts and filters the data, automatically identifying salary pay-

ments, ongoing commitments and any unusual activity, so rapid affordability and creditworthiness assessments can be conducted. David Wylie, Commercial Director of LendingMetrics, said: “We are now seeing massively more interest in OBV than only a few months ago. This is undoubtedly due to the Credit Kudos changes, which have come at a time when interest in Open Banking has been generally rising.”

Bank of England warns inflation will hit 11% Inflation has been climbing rapidly and the Bank of England now predicts it will hit 11% this year, revising their forecast for the eighth time in a year.

In contrast, the US Federal Reserve raised rates by 0.75 percentage points at the end of June, marking the biggest rise since 1994. The US is expected to raise rates by another 0.75 points in July and 0.5 in September, leading to concerns about the strength of the pound against the dollar. James Reilly, assistant economist at Capital Economics, said: ‘We expect the pound to weaken further against the US dollar over the rest of 2022 as the Bank of England fails to keep pace with the Fed and appetite for risk continues to weaken.’

The surging inflation - which has hit a 40-year high - led the BoE to raise the base interest rate by just 0.25 points to 1.25% , despite concerns over the strength of the economy and weak growth readings in recent months. This marks the fifth time the central bank has raised rates since December, but never more than 0.25 points each time.

www.lendingmetrics.com

Metrics Monthly | 07

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