TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) has announced a strategic investment in Bud Financial Limited, a key player focused on Open Banking and data intelligence.
This dynamic partnership will “help drive innovation and growth in the personal finance market and support better outcomes for consumers, with greater financial inclusion.”
Open Banking plays “an increasingly key role in facilitating innovation in the world of personal finance and automated income verification.” It allows finance providers “to better verify the income of applicants, including those who may not have a detailed credit history, or have had trouble accessing credit previously, and offers an alternative to manual, often resource-intensive processes.”
Satrajit “Satty” Saha, CEO of TransUnion in the UK, said:
“TransUnion is committed to increasing financial inclusion by continuing to expand the information available to create an accurate and reliable picture of each consumer. This strategic investment marks the start of an exciting new partnership with Bud, combining our global infrastructure and insights expertise with Bud’s end-to-end Open Banking platform. This will allow us to grow our Open Banking offering and jointly develop the next generation of credit, affordability and fraud solutions.”
Headquartered in the UK, Bud helps its clients “to turn complicated financial data into services that accelerate growth.”
Clients use Bud’s platform “to enhance their customer onboarding experience and personal financial management services, in order to boost engagement and increase loyalty.”
Bud’s aggregation and categorisation capabilities “power lending through income and employment verification, affordability assessments and ongoing transaction monitoring – connecting people to financial products and services that improve their lives.”
Edward Maslaveckas, CEO of Bud said:
“Bud exists to make financial decisions simple by turning transactional data into rich customer insight. By partnering with TransUnion, we’re able to combine advanced data intelligence capability with TransUnion’s expertise in financial services. This will drive improved return on investment for all of our customers, by connecting more people, through the banks they trust, to financial products that make their lives better.”
Bud is well-established “in the Open Banking space, and its platform and new data sources allow consumers to access affordable and appropriate lending products, especially for those who might otherwise have trouble accessing credit.”
To help maximize this partnership, TransUnion’s Satty Saha will “join the Bud board of directors and work closely with the Bud executive team to support future growth objectives.”
Todd Skinner, TransUnion’s international president added:
“As Bud expands its global presence, we see strong opportunities for harnessing our synergies to deploy innovative solutions that can be transferred to other TransUnion markets. We look forward to deepening and evolving this partnership, with Satty as part of the Bud leadership team, to support businesses and consumers, both in the UK and beyond.”
