Fintech Galaxy has partnered with Singaporean fintech company FinbotsAI to launch credit profiling capabilities that use artificial intelligence models and aggregated Open Banking data, in an effort to shake-up credit scoring and risk assessment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The collaboration involves the integration of FinbotsAI’s AI credit scoring and decisioning solution ‘CreditX’ with Fintech Galaxy’s Open Finance API platform, ‘FINX Connect’.

This integration is intended to give lenders and merchants across the MENA region the ability to scale their lending initiatives, promote financial inclusion, and manage credit risk.

Lenders can access “high-accuracy” risk assessment and real-time credit decisioning through secure API-based onboarding via FINX Connect.

Sanjay Uppal, founder and chief executive officer of FinbotsAI, said: “We are excited to choose Fintech Galaxy as our Open Banking partner in the MENA region to drive financial inclusion and democratise AI credit-scoring capabilities.

“By integrating CreditX into FINX Connect, we aim to empower lenders to reduce risk and improve profitability by making better credit risk decisions, ultimately reaching more customers across the region.”

Lenders across 11 countries in Asia and MENA have reported higher accuracy models generated on the CreditX platform, which has resulted in a 20% increase in approval rates and a 15% reduction of loss rates. Moreover, risk model development has become significantly more productive.

Founder and chief executive officer of Fintech Galaxy Mirna Sleiman called CreditX’s integration into FINX Connect “a breath of fresh air” in the MENA region.

“Lenders are getting a sophisticated, real-time credit decisioning tool and, by leveraging the power of AI-driven credit scoring, they will be able to make more informed decisions, reduce friction, eliminate errors, speed-up onboarding, and improve customer experience, eventually expanding access to financial services for underserved communities,” she added.