Creditinfo Group Awarded World Bank Tender
São Tomé and Príncipe, São Tomé, 19th, April 2021 – Creditinfo Group, the leading global credit information and decision analytics provider, today announces that it was awarded a tender by the Central Bank of São Tomé – represented by AFAP (Agencia Fiduciaria de Administracao de Projectos) who will be handling a project on the delivery and support of Public Credit Registry, financed by the World Bank.
Sao Tome is working with the World Bank with the aim of improving the financial infrastructure in the market, increase access to finance and enhance market stability. Creditinfo has already supported many markets in achieving this goal and was identified as a trusted and reliable partner.
Creditinfo will provide CBS (Credit Bureau Solutions), including Value-Added Products such as the Statistical Score, MyCreditinfo, Benchmarking and Monitoring – the latest and modern cutting-edge products and services in the credit industry, to help the Central Bank of São Tomé in implementing the Public Credit Registry.
Samúel Ásgeir White, Director of Direct Markets, Creditinfo Group is excited about this opportunity. “The important part is the knowledge transfer and our active approach – direct help to the Central Bank of São Tomé, with the whole implementation process of our modern services in São Tomé and Príncipe, since we have years of experience from the Central Banks around the world that we provide the same products and services to,” he said.
The competition was organized by AFAP as a fiduciary agency responsible for the management of the World Bank’s financial support, in favor of the Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe as a borrower, with Creditinfo being elected as winner, among 4 bidders.
On behalf of AFAP, Carlos Bonfim, technical advisor, intervened to congratulate on the conclusion of the contract with Creditinfo, a company whose references allow the prospect of a satisfactory result regarding the updating of the credit risk center of the Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe. He ended by expressing the wish that the quality of the partnership between all stakeholders will continue, in order to create a favorable cooperation climate for the implementation of the project.
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About Creditinfo
Established in 1997 and headquartered in London, UK, Creditinfo is a provider of credit information and risk management solutions worldwide. As one of the fastest-growing companies in its field, Creditinfo facilitates access to finance, through intelligent information, software and decision analytics solutions.
With more than 30 credit bureaus running today, Creditinfo has the most considerable global presence in this field of credit risk management, with a significantly greater footprint than competitors. For decades it has provided business information, risk management and credit bureau solutions to some of the largest, lenders, governments and central banks globally to increase financial inclusion and generate economic growth by allowing credit access for SMEs and individuals.
For more information, please visit www.creditinfo.com
About AFAP
AFAP was created in 2004 with the aim of managing funds made available by the technical and financial partners of the Government of São Tomé and Príncipe, of which the World Bank stands out in particular. It has an effective and motivated team and is respectful of the best practices for regulating tenders, and today has a portfolio of projects and partners in constant growth. Within the framework of its performance, the main projects such as the installation of fiber optics in Sao Tome Principe to provide high-speed internet services, education and health for all, improvement of the energy system can be cited as an example of success. electricity, namely hydrocentrals, introduction of alternative energies as well as rehabilitation of main roads, etc.
For more information, the following AFAP website can be viewed: www.afap.st
How Creditinfo supports Fintechs
The COVID-19 crisis had a profound financial and social impact across the globe, with several different industry sectors impacted. Curfews limited the effective utilization of physical branches, forcing financial services firms to turn to online channels. Few organizations were ready to make the transition to ‘digital lending’ smoothly, but this is where the Fintechs excelled. Capitalizing on their technical competencies, agility, and focus on specific niches they triggered substantial advances in online lending – ranging from streamlined, friction free customer experience to KYC processes.
Instead of focusing on internal operational efficiencies like traditional banks, Fintechs driving digital lending started to construct an ecosystem of services that evolved around their customers. Regulators, who have been observing the significant growth of digital lending started to weigh in; either requiring compliance with existing regulations or developing new regulations to be met. These steps had a wide-ranging impact from data quality to having a prudent credit risk management framework, including analytics, risk management tools, policy and procedures.
Creditinfo is well positioned to support Fintechs, helping them remain focused on providing an outstanding customer digital lending experiences, while ensuring a proven credit risk management framework. Our approach consists of 4 key services:
- Data: the first step to perform a credit risk assessment is done by collecting all relevant Depending on circumstances, this can be traditional (Credit Bureau) or non-traditional (transactional) data. Data quality checks need to be performed to derive the maximum insight from it. Operating in 45 countries and providing Credit Bureau services in 23 of them, we define industry standards on data quality. We know how to combine traditional and non-traditional data to be used in decisioning that meets your risk appetite.
- Analytics: deriving insight from data is our expertise. Our highly predictive models underpin objective, prudent credit risk decisions. By combining non-traditional and traditional, we are able to improve predictive power by over 50%.
- Decisioning: implement your scorecards with ease in our decisioning system. Streamline and eliminate manual processes to ensure quick and consistent decisions to your customers, providing you a competitive edge.
- Business know-how: we know how to adapt global best practices within your local environment. We are ready to discuss with you how we have improved lending for one of our customers by over 20% or reduced non-performing loans by 15%.
Please get in touch with us to discuss how we can make a positive step change in your business.
Creditinfo appoints Global Sales Leader
Creditinfo appoints former Experian consultant as global sales leader
Decision analytics leader welcomes Burak Kilicoglu to growth-focused senior role
LONDON, UK, 30th March 2021 – Creditinfo Group, the leading global credit information and decision analytics provider, today announces that it has appointed Burak Kilicoglu as its new Director of Global Markets to guide Creditinfo’s global sales teams strategically and operationally through the company’s next phase of growth.
Burak joins Creditinfo following 15 years at Experian where he provided strategic risk management consultancy on debt management, customer management and originations for retail banking as well as telecommunications sectors. In his new role he will be based out of the company’s Monaco office and set and execute a strategic vision and roadmap for sales in collaboration with other Creditinfo executives and key stakeholders.
With over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Burak will act as a key liaison between all business unit leaders to grow the global sales team’s capabilities, keeping pace with the ever-growing and changing needs of the business.
“Creditinfo continues to grow and develop as we realize our ambitions to enable corporates, SMEs and individuals be active players in the economy” commented Paul Randall, CEO at Creditinfo Group. “We’re delighted to bring Burak onboard to help us push forward as a business and further our ability to facilitate access to finance while also reducing risk for banks. Burak has a wealth of knowledge and experience that will make him a valuable asset to our business as we embark on our next phase of growth. His appointment, coupled with our new shareholder structure, brings fresh energy, thinking and impetus to our operations and will help us to capitalize on our unique position in the market.”
Burak Kilicoglu, Director of Global Markets at Creditinfo, commented, “I’m excited to be joining Creditinfo at such an important part of its growth journey. This is a company with significant growth potential and incredible products and technology to take to market. As the fintech industry continues to grow in global markets there is a huge opportunity to help organizations gauge their risk appetite and make informed and intelligent lending decisions based on a wide range of data source and market leading analytics technology. I’m very much looking forward to leading that charge and working with Creditinfo’s sales team and senior leaders to work towards expanding our market penetration and helping our clients make informed decisions with confidence.”
Prior to joining Experian, Burak was a VP in the European Card Services team at Bank of America, and before that held portfolio management roles at Discover Financial Services and Transamerica Retail Finance. He attended the University of Notre Dame – Mendoza College where he graduated with an MBA. He also has a MS in Industrial Engineering from the Istanbul Technical University.
This appointment follows the announcement of a new shareholder structure, with private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners as majority shareholders, and the appointment of Paul Randall as Group CEO to lead Creditinfo through a period of development and global expansion.
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About Creditinfo
Established in 1997 and headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland, Creditinfo is a provider of credit information and risk management solutions worldwide. As one of the fastest-growing companies in its field, Creditinfo facilitates access to finance, through intelligent information, software and decision analytics solutions.
With more than 30 credit bureaus running today, Creditinfo has the most considerable global presence in this field of credit risk management, with a significantly greater footprint than competitors. For decades it has provided business information, risk management and credit bureau solutions to some of the largest, lenders, governments and central banks globally to increase financial inclusion and generate economic growth by allowing credit access for SMEs and individuals.
For more information, please visit www.creditinfo.com
Media Contacts:
Matt Silver
Babel Agency for Creditinfo Group
+44 (0)7769 266 452
Creditinfo Group becomes majority shareholder of Kredītinformācijas Birojs (KIB)
LONDON, UK, March 25th, 2021 – Today, Creditinfo Group – the leading global credit information and decision analytics provider – announced that is has increased its stake in JSC “Kredītinformācijas Birojs” (KIB) to 51%, becoming the majority shareholder.
Earlier this month, the US private equity fund Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (LLCP) became the majority shareholder of Creditinfo Group. As the result of that transaction, the share capital of the KIB joint stock company was increased, with ABLV Bank selling its shares.
The other shareholders of the company, including the leading Latvian commercial banks; AS Swedbank, AS SEB banka, AS Luminor Bank, and AS Citadele banka will remain unchanged and will continue to support KIB by serving on the Supervisory Board of the joint stock company.
Jānis Timmermanis, Chairman of the Board of KIB: “This investment is an important confirmation of the company’s potential to continue to grow despite being a relatively young entity and offer lenders throughout the Baltic region modern solutions with scoring and decision capabilities while also enabling prevention of money laundering.”
Brynja Baldursdóttir, Director of Global Markets Creditinfo Nordics: “This announcement marks a significant milestone for Creditinfo and consolidates our presence in the Baltics as a leader in providing Decision-as-a-service solutions – a key component of the Credit Bureau system. With international knowledge and local market support, Creditinfo solutions are setting a high bar wherever they are implemented.”
KIB was founded in May 2013 and is the first licensed credit information bureau in Latvia. KIB helps banks and financial institutions to manage credit risk and apply best practices in risk management and credit operations. Its activities in the field of data processing are licensed and supervised by the State Data Inspectorate.
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About Creditinfo
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, Creditinfo is a global provider of credit information and risk management solutions. As one of the fastest growing companies in its field, Creditinfo facilitates access to finance through intelligent information, software and analysis solutions.
With more than 33 credit bureaus today, Creditinfo has the largest presence in credit risk management worldwide, with significantly greater influence than competitors. For decades, it has provided business information, risk management and credit bureau solutions to major lenders, governments and central banks around the world to increase financial inclusion and create economic growth by giving SMEs and individuals access to credit.
Media Contact:
Matt Silver
Babel Agency for Creditinfo Group creditinfo@babelpr.com
+44 (0)7769 266 452
More needs to be done to achieve gender parity
Independent analysis done by Creditinfo using its vast data assets showed that gender balance in the workplace is far from being achieved. Companies need to keep this top of mind when it comes to creating leadership opportunities for women as the world moves towards closing the gap on gender parity.
Analysis by Creditinfo Iceland showed that last year, women were only appointed CEOs in a quarter of new hires in Iceland. Women accounted for 25% of new hires for the position of CEO, although this was an improvement on the 20% average over the last five years. Today, women hold around 18% of the CEO positions in the 6,000 active companies, but only about 13% of them are CEOs of the 1,000 higher-turnover companies.
The FKA (Women’s Association in Business) in Iceland, has a set a goal in their “Gender Balance Scale” project that by 2027 the gender ratio will be at least 40/60 in the executive boards in Iceland. The project was established in 2017 and has helped to promote diversity and balance through greater gender equality in management positions.
If we look at the rate of change of last 10 years, it is clear that the goal will not be achieved until 2061. If the share of women in CEO positions is to reach 40% before then, the proportion of women in new hires should be between 58% and 70% by 2027. The analysis also highlights an interesting statistic; a woman is more likely to take over the CEO position if her predecessor was also a woman. That is some food for thought for the gentlemen!
Brynja Baldursdóttir, Managing Director of Creditinfo Iceland has clear views on how to drive change, she says “Given the current proportion of women in new hires, it is clear that the goal of women being at least 40% of CEOs In Iceland by 2027 will not be achieved. It may be more encouraging to focus on raising the proportion of women in new employment to at least 50% in all sectors by 2027. Managers can thus make an immediate impact and help tip the scales.”
In Lithuania gender equality still seems a remote concept according to an analysis recently conducted by Creditinfo Lithuania. At the beginning of March 2021, there were almost 100,000 company managers in Lithuania, of these, only 30% were women. Probably unsurprising the biggest gap is in the construction, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, transport and agriculture sectors. Whereas the smallest gap is in the services, hotel and restaurant businesses. Men start managing companies at just a slightly younger age than women: the average age of female managers is 47 years, and male – 46 years of age. According to the data, a total of 98,127 people worked in the position of corporate managers in Lithuania at the beginning of March, out of which 30% were women, showing the sorry state of affairs.
It is often believed that more women than men are employed in trade, but businesses in this sector are almost three times more likely to be managed by men: 27% women and 73% men.
“Although there is a bias in historically male employee dominated industries the female employee dominated industries are still majority led by males, so the logic does not hold. Across all industries the focus must be on executive management selection on merit alone,” says Jekaterina Rojaka, Creditinfo Lithunaia‘s COO.
According to a report done by the United Nations, women remain significantly underrepresented in all aspects of decision-making, and violence against women in public life is widespread. The attitude that women should not have public roles, enduring norms about gender roles and legal discrimination compound these challenges and devalue women’s contributions to decision-making, threatening sustainable development. The report recommends that in order reach equality in participation and decision-making in public life, it is necessary to implement international and national commitments and norms, including through temporary special measures, create more enabling environments and institutional systems, reduce violence against women in political life and strengthen the voices of women, who face multiple forms of discrimination.
According to another report by the UN Women, women are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, as front-line and health sector workers, as scientists, doctors and caregivers, yet they get paid 11 per cent less globally than their male counterparts. An analysis of COVID-19 task teams from 87 countries found only 3.5 per cent of them had gender parity. As a result, this year’s International Women’s Day is a rallying cry for Generation Equality, to act for an equal future for all.
Creditinfo Group
Creditinfo has a rich diversity of talent within the company. In each of our offices we have a mix of nationalities, genders, ages, cultures, sexual orientation, education among others. These differences within the Creditinfo enable the company to thrive and help us to embrace our company values of respect, innovation and no nonsense and ultimately, we create greater trust, internally and with our clients.
We strive to achieve a balance of genders within each of our 30+ markets, however we still see today a lower number of female applicants for certain roles during the recruitment process, often IT and analytical roles, which limits our options when hiring. Globally, we have 34% females and 66% male, and those percentages are also mirrored in management positions worldwide with approximately 63% male and 37% female.
With focus on International Women’s Day, we asked the Group HR & Operations Support at Creditinfo Group for her views on closing in on the gender gap.
“International Women’s Day has given us an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women worldwide and to also give thought to those women who are not so fortunate. I consider myself lucky to have worked for companies throughout my career that largely support women’s equality, Creditinfo being one of those, where we celebrate and recognize efforts by the women in our company. Recently, our General Manager from Ukraine, Kateryna Danylchenko was recognized as one of the top-50 most influential women of Ukrainian Fintech and these are among some of the achievements we are always proud of. It’d be great to see a more equal split since women’s full and effective participation and leadership in of all areas of life drives progress for everyone”, states Emma Camilleri, Group HR & Operations Support at Creditinfo Group.
#GenerationEquality #IWD2021
Banking for the future of Sri Lanka
Interview with Thimal Perera – Deputy CEO, DFCC Bank
Our Senior Business Development Manager, Joe Bowerbank, caught up with Thimal Perera, Deputy CEO of DFCC Bank. Thimal provided a number of interesting insights into how DFCC is strategically dealing with the challenges of operating in 2020 and building a roadmap to continue delivering a first-class banking experience going forward. Thimal has worked in both local and international banks across the globe, looking after a number of different areas from SME and retail, to digital transformation amongst others. This interview focuses on digitalization and credit risk – two areas that have been hot topics for Creditinfo’s clients this year.
Phone model, mobile internet and missed calls might determine whether you get credit
Press Release
Ever more personal data will in the future determine whether people can get a loan or buy goods on installment. If a person consents, before a decision is made about granting them credit they may be asked for permission to examine not just repayment of past loans but also other private information: what model of phone they have, whether they actively use mobile internet, whether they often do not answer calls. It may even be suggested that they play a real-time game whose outcome will determine whether they as a customer are creditworthy.
While companies that give credit have typically relied only on information gathered by financial institutions, now more and more personal data will influence decision-making. Whether credit is granted, how much, and on what terms may depend on whether a customer is ready to share that information.
“There’s no doubt that personal data can only be used with the person’s consent,” Creditinfo Head of Decision Analytics for the Baltic states, Maxim Fetisov immediately stresses. “But practice shows that openly sharing additional information increases a creditor’s trust, lets them more accurately assess each customer’s trustworthiness, and even allows customers to expect more favorable credit terms.” Research conducted by Creditinfo has shown that knowledge about a customer’s personal habits gives creditors just as many insights as formal data.
A recent conference “Scoring Kitchen” by Creditinfo, which rates the creditworthiness of companies and individuals in more than 50 countries, addressed what is new in the scoring process. For example, a study was done together with telco company on how people’s financial reliability relates to their everyday behaviour. Analysis of the data revealed that even how long people use one telecom operator’s services shows which ones are financially more trustworthy: the longer someone uses the same telco’s services, the more financially reliable their loan-payment history is too. And on the contrary, customers who frequently change operators generally demonstrated a higher level of riskiness.
Those without 4G and who use mobile internet little fall into a higher-risk group
Creditinfo analyst Allan Anyona, who took part in the study, also notes that individuals who are less financially reliable tend to have more modest internet plans and rush to connect as quickly as possible to free Wi-Fi networks at home and elsewhere.
Moreover, it was observed that the more advanced the network connection a potential customer’s phone supports, the greater their creditworthiness. So customers using phones that support 4G network requirements are seen more favorably than those whose phones only work on a 2G network or do not make such information available.
Many missed calls points to a frequent debtor
Creditors get useful insights as well from data about whether a potential customer often fails to answer incoming calls. People were divided into five categories: those who fail to answer calls very often, often, an average amount, rarely, and very rarely. It turns out the most financially reliable were those in the last two groups. The riskiest customers, meanwhile, were among the people who “miss” calls more often than others.
“We assume that people experiencing financial difficulties avoid answering calls as they do not want to talk with creditors or with relatives to whom they may also be in debt,” the Creditinfo Group analyst explains.
With smart devices revealing more and more information about consumers, creditors are eager to actively look at other habits too – like the use of a mobile wallet. The more punctually a customer tops up their mobile wallet limit and the bigger their income, the higher their credit rating will be. Conversely, the smaller someone’s income is and the longer they use credit provided by a telco, the more cautiously other lenders will view them. So those people should not be surprised if they are not allowed to buy a more expensive item on installment or are refused a bigger credit limit on a payment card.
Games show how you will behave with real money
Seeking to get a more objective assessment of a customer’s creditworthiness and to automate the decision-making process, psychometric data are being used ever more actively. A future customer may be asked to play a quiz that takes 5-7 minutes. It may be a series of questions, like: how would you use an unexpected gift of €200 – would you spend it on entertainment or save it? Studies show that the customers who meet their financial obligations most responsibly tend to choose the answer ‘I would save it’ in the game, while the riskiest customers more often choose ‘I would spend it on entertainment’.
“We realize that over time skilled players learn to choose those answer that creditors view more favorably. But in calculating any individual’s rating, dozens of other factors are also assessed, like their insurance history, repayment of earlier loans, payment of utilities bills, and so on,” CEO of Creditinfo Lithuania, Aurimas Kačinskas notes.
The pandemic also altered how companies are rated – there are new factors
The CEO of Creditinfo Lithuania says the challenges of the pandemic in 2020 are also changing the rules for rating businesses. New factors have arisen that impact credit scores. For instance, a new indicator for the impact of Covid-19 has altered the current ratings of companies all over the world. It shows how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted every area of business (e.g., tourism, hotels, manufacturing, transport, etc.) and how companies’ creditworthiness relates to the geographic location of their operations, demand for the goods they produce, and possibilities for quickly recovering after restrictions and quarantine end. Businesses’ ratings are also heavily influenced by a ‘Collection’ indicator that reflects whether a company punctually settles with its creditors.
“We have no doubt that the new factors that are coming up will have an increasing significance for companies’ credit scores – in a time of economic turmoil, it’s very important for creditors to objectively assess every customer’s riskiness and make the most accurate decisions possible,” Maxim Fetisov, Head of Decision Analytics in the Baltics says.
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About Creditinfo
Established in 1997 and headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland, Creditinfo is a provider of credit information and risk management solutions worldwide. As one of the fastest growing companies in its field, Creditinfo facilitates access to finance, through intelligent information, software and analytics solutions.
With more than 33 credit bureaus running today, Creditinfo has the largest global presence in the field of credit bureau and risk management, with a significantly greater footprint than competitors. For decades it has provided business information, risk management and credit bureau solutions to some of the largest, lenders, governments and central banks globally – all with the aim of increasing financial inclusion and generating economic growth by allowing credit access for SMEs and individuals.
For more information:
Media Contacts:
Caterina Ponsicchi,
Marketing Director, Creditinfo Group
Mala’a launches Credit Bureau System in Oman
Creditinfo and Mala’a’s strategic partnership started in January 2019 and since then, the teams have been developing a state of the art Credit Bureau System, connecting members, integrating with new data providers, and ensuring the system is protected to the highest security standards.
On November 18th 2020, Mala’a officially launched its state-of-the-art Credit Bureau System to the banking sector in Oman. This announcement affirms Creditinfo’s commitment in helping businesses globally make better use of information and data, along with providing the latest software solutions to enhance risk decisioning strategies. Creditinfo have over the years strengthened our partnerships with Credit Bureaus globally by delivering Creditinfo’s technology with core credit bureau systems, infrastructure expertise, operational set up, self-service platforms, alternative data, digital lending solutions among other tailored services.
Creditinfo will continue partnering with Mala’a into the next phase of our project. The teams will be ensuring we expand the membership to new sectors such as telecommunication and insurance and delivering new value-added services like Instant Decision Solutions, Mobile Lending Platforms and Portfolio Management tools. This will help lenders and organizations improve the application process and the customer experience for Oman residents.
Lenders across the GCC are changing the way in which they operate and make decisions on an individual’s creditworthiness moving to a digital based approach while harnessing traditional and non-traditional data. With Creditinfo Gulf based in Muscat now firmly installed in the region Creditinfo will remain at the forefront of facilitating access to finance in each of our markets and help lenders to reduce risk and increase profitability. We look forward to continuing assisting with cutting-edge technology in the region and helping Lenders and Telcos increase profitability without increasing the risk of new business.
Gary Brown, MD, Creditinfo Gulf.
Creditinfo IBCH (Ukraine) welcomes Kateryna Danylchenko as new GM
Kateryna has been appointed as GM of IBCH, a Credit Bureau and Analytics company in Ukraine in which Creditinfo has been a strategic investor since 2006.
The way leading to the ‘haven’ of Startups is grounded by Data Analysis
Lithuania‘s transformation to the startup-friendly country has been successful: last year the first “unicorn” appeared in the market, and the startup ecosystem at present includes over 900 enterprises which have the great potential for business development based on innovations. And yet, the general conception of the startups’ contribution to the country’s economy has remained stereotypical, as it is alleged that these are risky enterprises which rapidly emerge and dissolve, and that they create few workplaces. The latest analyses done by “Creditinfo” and “Startup Lithuania” reject these stereotypes.
