The market opportunity is wide: only 33% of Mexicans have a formal credit, 34% are men and 32% women, according to the National Survey of Financial Inclusion (ENIF) 2021. But, the number of cell phones in the country amounts to 123.8 million, according to figures from The CIU.
“Everything on your phone basically reflects your lifestyle, with that we are going to find out if your tendency is going to be a good payer or not. The advantage of this is that we can do this analysis of anyone who has a phone in their hand”, comments Gerardo Sandoval, co-founder and product director of Equality, which has a presence in 14 Latin American countries and more than 140 clients, 60 of them them in Mexico, mainly in the fintech sector, retail companies, telephone operators and pawn shops.
The specialist points out that with his software, based on artificial intelligence, analyzes 1.3 million variables that go through predictive models that can detect a possible identity theft or the probability that a person falls into arrears. All without checking the credit bureau, even if you don’t have a history.
“As long as technology allows users to be reached with more measured risks, more people will be willing to lend money. Until today, the only way to lend is by raising (interest) rates because every business that grants credit has to cover itself for those who do not pay, ”he explained.
What can be analyzed from a phone?
All. From the number of contacts, names, if you link corporate or personal emails when saving them, if you save your contacts with nicknames to the services of streaming what you download or apps like Amazon and banks.
A person who has 30 contacts and who saves them with nicknames will not access the same financing as someone whose agenda has more than 10. With all of the above, a rating ranging from 350 to 800 is assigned.
“With a client in Colombia, for example, we realized that people who have two social network applications, for example, Instagram or Facebook; who take at least 14 photos a day, of which four are selfie; that have at least two services streaming and who have at least two online shopping services, are people who do or do pay. This is a lot of statistics and you begin to understand who is covering circuits with different intersections of applications”, adds Sandoval.
56% of social network users have been on them on average for more than a decade, according to a study by the Kaspersky firm called “Tell me what you post and I’ll tell you who you are: the implications of your publications on social networks.” The information that can be collected is not little: friendships, photographs, videos, number of likestime invested in them, etc.
The same study points out that each person can have a qualification in social networks. 67% of Mexicans say they have not been “qualified” and 17% did not even know that this could happen.
The social ratings phenomenon is most prevalent in Asia, where 70% of people know what it is. In fact, the inhabitants of China consider it correct that access to public resources such as transportation, education or housing be limited when a person does not exhibit good behavior.
In the case of Equality, it promises to reduce delinquencies or uncollectible loans between 30% and 60% as well as increase sales by 50%. To guarantee the payment of debts, the firm has a functionality that consists of blocking the mobile device. It is a tool that sends notifications to customers to remind them of the date and the amount to pay, if the person continues to default, the phone screen remains in the bank until the debt is settled.
“(The block) is not illegal, it all depends on the terms and conditions that the client accepted when he received the credit. Obviously we have to notify the client that an application is going to be installed that can block or locate their device and the client has to accept it”, highlights Sandoval.
