Worldline partners with Algoan to offer a cutting-edge credit scoring solution for lenders and service providers.

Paris, May 4, 2022 - Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a global leader in payment services, and Algoan, a leading provider of credit decision support tools, today announced a collaboration agreement to jointly develop a cutting-edge credit scoring solution to help lenders and service providers make better credit decisions. The service is based on best-of-breed APIs and machine learning, using open banking data.

With secure user consent framed by PSD2*, credit institutions, borrowers and merchants have the opportunity to adopt a faster, fairer and data-driven approach to Credit Scoring, offering clear benefits for all parties. Worldline and Algoan, each specialized in its own field, are joining forces to make this solution easily accessible to the market.

Traditional credit scoring practices across Europe involve varying degrees of manual processes and assessments, which are prone to human error and cost both lender and borrower significant time to process a credit application. As a result of fundamental changes in the financial services sector, the task of assessing potential borrowers is becoming increasingly difficult, with traditional rating methods no longer meeting consumer expectations and failing to keep pace with digital transformation or regulatory changes. The credit risk assessment process has much to gain from the facilities offered by PSD2, as Open Banking and Open Finance continue to deliver better and faster services to consumers and institutions alike.

Harnessing the power of Open Banking

The partnership will combine the pan-European reach of Open Banking and Worldline's expertise in online banking, with Algoan's expertise in credit scoring, using best-of-breed Machine Learning algorithms, delivering a new Open Banking-based Credit Scoring tool. This will enable banks, lending institutions, loan companies and service providers to take credit scoring to the next level, resulting in more accurate scoring, access to better data and improved processing efficiency. This innovation can prove invaluable for a wide range of use cases, such as personal finance and consumer lending, automotive finance and leasing, retail lending and BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), insurance and utility providers.

Significant benefits for both lenders and borrowers

Credit Scoring based on Open Banking brings benefits to both lenders and borrowers. As the lender receives data from the bank, the validity of the data is guaranteed, reducing the risk of fraud. Based on a more accurate assessment, it is possible to accept applicants who would otherwise have been turned down. Thanks to access to the consumer's account data, for which he has given his consent, lenders quickly gain a better insight into the consumer's real financial situation, and can meet the borrower's needs without risking overindebtedness. What's more, the lender can offer a quick and simple customer journey, while the borrower benefits from a more accurate credit assessment and shorter response time.

At the heart of this new credit assessment tool is Worldline's Open Banking API, which provides access to over 3,500 banks in 19 European countries, making Worldline one of the largest Open Banking providers in Europe.

Michael Steinbach, Managing Director of Financial Institution Services at Worldline: "At Worldline, we are looking for innovative partners who share our vision and enable us to enrich and extend our Open Banking services. As a leader in payment services and one of the largest Open Banking providers in Europe, we are committed to unlocking the full potential of Open Banking. With Algoan, we will be able to offer our customers an end-to-end, fast and cost-effective white-label solution for assessing creditworthiness."

Michael Diguet, CEO of Algoan: "Open Banking credit scoring is gaining momentum that major players should embrace. We are delighted to collaborate with a global leader like Worldline and provide them with our best-in-class credit scoring API. This new collaboration marks another step in Algoan's international growth. We look forward to revolutionizing the credit industry together by leveraging Worldline's Open Banking capabilities."

*Payment Services Directive 2

About Worldline
Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is a world leader in payments and the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and acquirers. With 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its customers with sustainable, reliable and innovative solutions that contribute to their growth. Worldline offers in-store and online merchant acquiring solutions, highly secure processing of payment transactions, as well as a wide range of digital services. Worldline's proforma sales for 2021 amounted to almost 4 billion euros.

About ALGOAN
Europe's leading Credit Scoring API, Algoan offers fintechs, retailers and financial institutions credit decision support tools that can be integrated via a programming interface into the BNPL, credit granting, car subscription and mortgage processes. Based on open banking (the secure sharing of credit applicants' banking data), Algoan's solutions halve credit risk(1), reduce the number of loan applicants accepted(2), cut processing costs and offer a seamless 100% digital workflow.
(1) ISO acceptance
(2) ISO risk