Smart Credit Assessment & Analytics for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Financing
Overview
Traditional credit scoring relies on the financial information provided by the loan applicants, but MSME lack sufficient credit history and readily available financial records. Banks may find it difficult to assess their creditworthiness. In view of this, ASTRI conducted a study and explored the use of financial technologies to develop an alternative credit scoring. It can produce credit scores for MSME based on both alternative and conventional data.
Technical name of innovation
Smart Credit Assessment & Analytics for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Financing
Research completion
2020
Commercialisation opportunities
IP licensing; Technology co-development
Problem addressed
- The challenge of traditional credit scoring which relies on the financial information provided by the loan applicants of micro, small & medium-sized enterprises (MSME), such as financial statements.
- The challenge of MSME who may not have sufficient credit history and readily available financial records. Without such data and visibility of their business operations, it may be difficult for banks to assess their creditworthiness which impedes their business expansion.
- The cost concern of Banks who find the assessment of creditworthiness for MSME not cost-effective.
Innovation
- An alternative credit scoring platform with smart engines that produce credit scores for MSME based on both alternative and conventional data.
- An online document processing engine using AI-based optical character recognition technology
- A data analytics engine for credit assessment using conventional data
- An alternative credit assessment engine for implementing the newly proposed framework of alternative credit scoring
- A communication infrastructure for connecting strategic data partners to collect information for the analysis of alternative credit assessment
Key impact
- A cost-effective way for financial institutions to analyze and identify the creditworthiness of MSME
- An automatic credit underwriting platform that supports continuous assessments of MSME
- An innovative approach in using alternative data from different data partners of banks to perform alternative credit scoring
Application
- Credit scoring for MSME financing
Patent
- US App. No. 17/344,893, CN App. No. 202180001789.0 and HK App. No. 62022045702.7
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI)
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) is founded in 2000 by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. As Hong Kong’s largest government-funded research and development centre, ASTRI is a key force and super connector driving innovation and technology advancement in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and the global innovation ecosystem. This role is strengthened through its merger with Nano and Advanced Materials Institute (NAMI).
Committed to bringing high impact research from lab to market, ASTRI advances interdisciplinary, market driven R&D that delivers practical innovations for industry and meaningful benefits for society.
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