Truv Acquires Credegraph to Expand Lending Verification Offerings

Truv has acquired Credegraph to expand its lending verification offerings.

The acquisition adds Credegraph’s credit decisioning platform to Truv’s consumer-permissioned data platform, the companies said in a Tuesday (May 9) press release.

This combination will enable lenders to verify an applicant’s ability to repay a loan without having to interpret banking transaction data that can be difficult to decipher, according to the release.

“Truv and Credegraph now solve this problem by deriving FCRA [Fair Credit Reporting Act] compliant credit attributes from banking transaction data so lenders can gather relevant alternative credit data points,” Truv Co-Founder and CEO Kirill Klokov said in the release.

With the combination of Truv and Credegraph, 2,200 unique credit attributes will be added to Truv’s financial accounts income and transactions products, enabling it to deliver an alternative credit report that facilitates lenders’ underwriting, according to the press release.

The credit attributes include income, cash flow, prior overdrafts, forecasted cash balance and other spending categories, and the new solution helps lenders reduce manual document processing, gather data in a streamlined way and acquire alternative credit data points, the release said.

“Credegraph is very excited and passionate about joining forces with Truv to deliver a new lending verification experience that reduces risk while allowing lenders to approve more loans,” Credegraph Founder and CEO Bental Wong said in the release. “I will be joining the Truv team to further the mission of unlocking the power of consumer-permissioned data.”

PYMNTS research has found that 31% of U.S. consumers are “credit insecure,” meaning they lack access to credit, have fewer options to repair their finances and risk opting out of credit altogether.

Credit providers have the opportunity to develop products that can help more consumers become credit secure, according to “How Credit Insecurity is Changing U.S. Consumers’ Borrowing Habits,” a PYMNTS and Sezzle collaboration.

As PYMNTS reported in December 2022, banks and FinTechs are increasingly investing in new ways to help so-called “cusp consumers” boost their credit scores and improve overall financial wellness with the help of programs that support — and report — responsible payment behavior.

The commercial interest in credit rehab is hot right now as institutions look for new ways to respond to a changing economic environment that reflects the prospects of crimped borrowing demand due to rising interest rates.