Equifax Australia and Mastercard have entered into a strategic partnership to combine the former’s data and analytics capabilities with the latter’s Open Finance solutions.
Through this collaboration, Equifax and Mastercard aim to introduce new and advanced products to the Australian market.
Scaling financial inclusion in Australia
Initially, the two companies launched Equifax Open Score, a new bank transaction score developed to support over 2.5 million consumers with limited or no credit history who may still need access to financial services, including young individuals, new migrants, and those re-entering the credit market. With this solution, Equifax and Mastercard intend to serve these often overlooked groups that are not adequately addressed by traditional assessment models.
Additionally, Open Score supports individuals in better understanding their financial position and taking the necessary steps to achieve long-term financial well-being. By benefiting from insights from bank transaction data, the solution also facilitates financial inclusion, providing new opportunities for those who have previously been underserved.
Created by Equifax and utilising Mastercard’s global Open Finance network, Open Score leverages secure consumer-consented bank transaction data received through the Consumer Data Right (CDR). This data is analysed in real-time to evaluate a consumer’s financial health, with the result being a score between 0-10, provided together with other key contributing factors to support consumers understand what influences their score.
Furthermore, besides offering explanations regarding what is impacting their score, Open Score delivers several other capabilities, including:
- Making credit hidden consumers visible to lenders and financial services providers;
- Providing transaction alerts underlining key behaviours within a user’s data, with customers being able to leverage these warnings to better understand their expenses and identify any unusual or fraudulent transactions;
- Including a Confidence Metric to indicate how reliably the score represents a consumer’s financial well-being;
- Utilising banking transaction data to offer insights into a consumer's income, expenses, and spending patterns.
Open Score is enabled by Mastercard’s accredited Open Finance platform, equipping consumers with security that their banking data is shared safely across Mastercard’s network. Developed on the principle of consent by design, consumers have complete control over their data, and sharing functions securely, in real time and with their permission.
