Exploring the potential of alternative data for creating new markets.

Financial service providers are increasingly adopting alternative data to understand and viably serve new segments of the market. Two main trends give rise to this: There is an increase in the amount of alternative data available, and analytical capabilities are improving to more accurately predict future financial behaviour, based on alternative data.

Adoption of alternative data to create new markets is, to date, mostly seen among mobile-application-based credit providers. As the products of such providers gain momentum, a critical question remains: Are they deepening financial inclusion? To explore the potential that smartphone-based, alternative, creditscoring models could have on extending credit to unserved or underserved individuals, insight2impact (i2i) conducted research in partnership with Branch.

insight2impact (i2ifacility) was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The programme was established and driven by Cenfri and Finmark Trust.