Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EU-CREDIT-AI (Verified and Passportable Financial Identity)
Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2025-03-31
MISSION | Mifundo's mission is to make creditworthiness borderless. Our goal is to build a verified and passportable financial identity solution that eliminates the barriers between people and banks in the EU.
VISION | Mifundo's vision is to make the entire EU into one single credit market, bridging the gap between people and banks. Aiming to break down barriers and promote financial inclusion, where individuals in European countries can seamlessly access credit without restrictions or penalties based on nationality or geographic boundaries.
45 MILLION PEOPLE WITHOUT ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES | Banks in EU have around 10% of their customers foreigners or own citizens with financial histories in other countries. Compounded by the high costs and risks associated with cross-border financial products, approximately 45 million individuals who move across borders face difficulties in being trusted by the banks. Currently this is viewed as a minority by banks and regarded as a highly risky segment due to lack of trustworthy data. These EU citizens might have stellar credit history in their origin country, but when crossing borders, they are penalized and profiled negatively due to the fragmented nature of data in Europe.
DATA FRAGMENTATION | Today's bank lending is country-based and there is no solution available across the EU, making cross-border borrowing almost impossible. Within their own national borders, banks today are operating in isolation and in most cases automatically reject any applicant without in-country financial history. This is due to lack of trustworthy data because credit bureaus also operate only in their own national silos, having no data about people who are not residents of a specific country. This creates a structural discrimination of cross-border applicants because of historic market dynamics in each respective country in the EU.
If there was a one single API for credit data from EU 27 member states to cover all foreign applicants they could be served by the banks. Fragmentation goes further with member state credit legislation, credit information gathering, loan analysis and the lack of a unified credit score, which must be solved to address the problem of interconnected people across the EU. A single point for all member state credit history is necessary to provide a standardised and transparent credit assessment system that would benefit borrowers, lenders and regulators alike.
VISION | Mifundo's vision is to make the entire EU into one single credit market, bridging the gap between people and banks. Aiming to break down barriers and promote financial inclusion, where individuals in European countries can seamlessly access credit without restrictions or penalties based on nationality or geographic boundaries.
45 MILLION PEOPLE WITHOUT ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES | Banks in EU have around 10% of their customers foreigners or own citizens with financial histories in other countries. Compounded by the high costs and risks associated with cross-border financial products, approximately 45 million individuals who move across borders face difficulties in being trusted by the banks. Currently this is viewed as a minority by banks and regarded as a highly risky segment due to lack of trustworthy data. These EU citizens might have stellar credit history in their origin country, but when crossing borders, they are penalized and profiled negatively due to the fragmented nature of data in Europe.
DATA FRAGMENTATION | Today's bank lending is country-based and there is no solution available across the EU, making cross-border borrowing almost impossible. Within their own national borders, banks today are operating in isolation and in most cases automatically reject any applicant without in-country financial history. This is due to lack of trustworthy data because credit bureaus also operate only in their own national silos, having no data about people who are not residents of a specific country. This creates a structural discrimination of cross-border applicants because of historic market dynamics in each respective country in the EU.
If there was a one single API for credit data from EU 27 member states to cover all foreign applicants they could be served by the banks. Fragmentation goes further with member state credit legislation, credit information gathering, loan analysis and the lack of a unified credit score, which must be solved to address the problem of interconnected people across the EU. A single point for all member state credit history is necessary to provide a standardised and transparent credit assessment system that would benefit borrowers, lenders and regulators alike.
Mifundo develops the standardised technology layer for banks to assess the credit risk of their foreign and multi-country customers, and verified & passportable financial identity for consumers to access credit in EU regardless of their location or nationality. On the purpose to verify and standardise the credit information Mifundo has built the relations with the credit bureaus and registries in all the 27 member states in EU and beyond. Achieved technology is already capable to passport credit data regarding the people corresponding to 50% of the population in EU.
As the project is in progress it is a little bit too early to define the exact needs for further uptake and success. Still, it is expected the market education activities will stay important, along with the further product development. The potential impact of the project is one single market for credit services in EU but it takes reasonable time to educate banks and consumers about passportability of cross-border credit data. The process can be fastened if working together with the policymakers, central banks and regulators.