Consumer Lending: Grab Partners with Japan-Based Credit Saison

FACTS

• The Singapore-based ridesharing platform Grab keeps focusing on diversifying their range of services. They just teamed up with Credit Saison, one of the largest financing companies in Japan, to build a Joint-Venture.

• newly created JV called Grab Financial Services Asia has been announced along with their launch of Grab Financial, FinTech platform within Grab’s ecosystem, during the Money 20/20 keynote.
• It will be featuring lending offers for un(der)banked customers across Southeast Asia.
• In order to achieve this goal, they will rely on Grab’s ability to reach millions of consumers, micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs in this region.
• For starters, Grab Financial Services Asia will be focusing on A dedicated should see the day in April.
• In the weeks to come, Grab’s customers in Singapore will be able to use this deferred payment feature and settle all Grab-related transactions at the end of the month.

only 27% of adults in Southeast Asia hold a bank account

Source: World Bank

CHALLENGES

• this JV, they intend to provide reliable alternatives to traditional credit ratings based on customer data analytics.
• used additional data to assess customers’ creditworthiness. They gather and analyse transport movements, geolocation, and GrabPay transaction data.
• this new credit rating method, Grab wants to improve banking inclusion levels in Southeast Asia and become the largest platform for payments and financial services in this region.
• ambition will also lead them to make a scoring platform available to third party institutions, including banks.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Grab also launched a lending offer for SMEs earlier this year, which also stresses their intent to diversify their range of financial products.
• By April, they plan to team up with one of the leading insurance companies globally, Chubb, to add insurance options for their drivers.
• By way of remnder, WeChat opted for a similar approach as they test a scoring tool based on analysing customer data, and make it available for financial companies.