The impact of ‘Golden Files’ in lending

This year, you can expect to hear a lot more noise about ‘Golden Files’ and the benefits they can introduce. But what are they, and how can they boost speed, efficiency and customer experience in the lending industry?

There’s a shiny new buzz word in town – ‘Golden File’ (aka Golden Profile). It’s one worth paying attention to. A Golden File is essentially a customer profile that has been enriched by the third party data services now available in the Open Banking environment, and it enables lenders to better refine their services.

Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) have become an integral part of our networked world. They can provide today’s financial institutions, fintechs and big tech companies with a wealth of new business opportunities as brick and mortar branches are replaced by digital platforms where customers serve themselves, and in doing so share vast amounts of data.

Everything happens faster, functions more efficiently, and is immediately available. Companies must be able to fully understand their customers in order to accompany them as they navigate through their journey. However the digitalisation of the customer means that it’s now harder than ever to create a true 360° view of them because their footprint is stretched across a greater number of websites, social media accounts and other digital platforms.

A lender keen to follow this vastly-widened footprint faces a number of challenges. They first have to collect all the data, then store it appropriately before finally making it available for analysis – essentially transforming it into usable curated data.

Companies therefore need to combine all available information about their customers into a definitive file. This spans master, or general, data and dynamic (transaction and interaction) data, as well as data from myriad third parties – whether that’s a credit bureau, HMRC or even Facebook and Twitter.

This is where a Golden File is a game changer. It’s a central customer master profile that contains all the important master features of a customer from different data sources, but also all relevant transaction and interaction data. A robust Golden File also includes links to all the data sources that have been drawn upon. This means that when an alteration is made to an element in one data source, it will also be synchronised across all other sources.

A Golden File gives lenders the ability to provide customers with an informed lending decision in a matter of minutes, one that has taken all of the rich data spread across the customer’s digital footprint into account.

Ezbob’s solution aggregates information from over 40 different service providers and presents better data that leads to better risk management. This includes the ability to provide loans based on non-traditional online data, such as Amazon, e-bay or PayPal activity. Decisions and offers are done within minutes and the money is transferred within hours without any human intervention.

Want to find out more about how Golden Files can boost your business? Get in touch today to see how we can help you to transform your lending experience to help you stay ahead of the curve.