MONEDO
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“ There ’ s a real shift towards automation based on machine learning and alternative data ”
— Konstantinos Papakonstantinou , Chief Data Officer , Monedo
Dr Papakonstantinou explains : “ If you have raw transaction data , enhanced with labels for the different categories of transactions , and transformed into different features that accurately describe the financial profile of the user , you can underwrite more efficiently and achieve a much better performance than the banks that underwrite with traditional methods .”
The company ’ s main source of data is Kontomatik , an API that enables financial institutions to verify customers ’ identities and access their banking activity . Monedo is also in the process of integrating Kontomatik ’ s scoring service , which is currently done in-house . Indeed , as the organisation has grown , it has begun to outsource technology to third parties . Dr Papakonstantinou explains that this is a typical process for startups as they grow into scale-ups . “ Startups tend to build everything in-house because integrating third parties is just too expensive , and because a smaller team is more agile and has the capacity and the passion to do this . As you mature , one of the things you realise is that you need to have valuable partnerships and strategic alliances ; you
JULY 2020