ForwardAI, a Fintech firm offering aggregated access to business and accounting data and analysis, has introduced PreciseMatch, which is described as an intelligent transaction mapping technology that “automatically cross-validates accounting systems with synced banking accounts, allowing for smarter, more efficient small business lending decisions.”
Banking platforms, Fintech firms and lenders are reportedly leveraging ForwardAI’s Precise API for credit decisions as its tech offers real-time assessments of the financial health of their small business clients.
Although accounting data offers a more “robust” understanding of a firm’s financial health, it is more “susceptible to potential fraud and distortion because it is self-reported,” according to an update shared with CI.
Even though banking data is obtained from “trusted” sources and the chances of data manipulation are “slim,” it’s challenging to “make sense of banking data in isolation,” the announcement explained. ForwardAI’s PreciseMatch is specifically developed to “address these challenges and provide lenders with a more comprehensive view of the credit worthiness of a potential small business borrower.”
The announcement also mentioned that ForwardAI’s PreciseMatch tech was designed “to fix data reliability issues in traditional business lending, using a combination of machine learning algorithms, statistical analysis, and custom made rules.”
The update further noted that the solution “makes identifying risky/fraudulent transactions and outliers in financial data a simple process, accelerating business lending by reducing the time-consuming and error-prone ‘stare and compare’ method used today.”
Kunal Patel, VP at People’s United Bank., noted that ForwardAI transforms how banking and lending platforms are qualifying small business customers in their loan application process.
Patel added:
“With PreciseMatch, companies no longer need to spend countless hours manually comparing PDFs to verify transaction data. The technology can now identify in seconds with certainty that every transaction is accurate, enabling the SMB lending industry to serve their clients faster with more personalized solutions to help them succeed.”
PreciseMatch uses the latest tech to reliably match transactions in accounting and banking data, and rates “each matched transaction with a normalized confidence level (Confidence Scoring) ranging from 1% to 100%.”
After Confidence Scoring, PreciseMatch “analyses the data and identifies all outlier and suspicious transactions,” the announcement noted. Financial institutions or lenders are able to “manually review highlighted transactions to ensure they are real or create system event thresholds within the API to automatically deny untrustworthy borrowers.”
Nick Chandi, Co-founder and CEO at ForwardAI, remarked:
“We believe ForwardAI’s PreciseMatch technology can revolutionize cash-flow-based small business lending. It opens new opportunities for the bank to create an embedded finance ecosystem to better serve its small business clients.
Chandi also mentioned:
“With access to real-time sales data, customer payment behavior, vendors, and more, banks can avoid lengthy application processes for small amount loans for existing small and midsized business clients and reduce the costs associated with underwriting.
