The platform has been developed in partnership with Castlight Financial with the remit of helping brokers understand the financial position of new and existing borrowers who consent to use the service.
Equifax has launched a platform allowing brokers to view consumers’ credit history and a summary of their spending behaviour electronically.
The platform has been developed in partnership with FinTech startup Castlight Financial with the remit of helping brokers understand the financial position of new and existing borrowers who consent to use the service.
Jake Ranson, banking and financial institutions director at Equifax UK, said: “Working with specialist technology partners from across the industry is a great way to innovate on behalf of both clients and consumers so we are excited to be working with Castlight to deliver something unique to the market.
“Industry initiatives like Open Banking Standards highlight the financial industry’s commitment to reform itself to help customers take more control over their data and make it easier for the financial services industry to use data on behalf of customers in a variety of helpful and innovative ways.
“Equifax is fully committed to these developments and is working on a range of solutions to support our broad range of financial services clients.”
The information will be provided in the form of an 'Affordability Passport' created by the mortgage applicant in a secure and private portal.
Data will be gathered in real time combined with a historic view of the way the consumer manages their credit.
Phil Grady, chief executive of Castlight, said: “This platform significantly reduces the time it takes for the mortgage process to be completed, and provides brokers with a framework to give informed, detailed advice much earlier in the client engagement process.”
Paradigm Mortgage Services will be one of the first distributors of the new platform.
Bob Hunt, its chief executive of Pardigm, said: “This tool significantly aids not just the client in understanding their true financial status, and their attractiveness as potential borrowers, but we believe it is able to offer a substantial benefit to the mortgage application process.
“With the advent of Open Banking and PSD2 we are about to see significant change in the accessibility and availability of data to clients, who can access their information in this type of secure environment.
“We are particularly pleased to have been chosen as Castlight's primary distribution partner and we welcome the opportunity to talk to like-minded firms interested in knowing more.”
