A new Open Banking platform, providing consumer bank account data free-of-charge to mortgage finance providers, is set to launch next week.

LendingMetrics’ OpenBankVision will allow users access to 90 days of bank statements with no minimum or maximum cap on the number of requests, when it goes live on 3 December.

Consumers confirm consent for read-only access to their bank accounts via an app, oohMoolah, which then gives OpenBankVision a token to interrogate accounts in real time. The token has a life - typically of three months - allowing credit providers to re-access the real-time data.

Neil Williams, managing director of LendingMetrics, said: “We’ve spent two years developing and testing OpenBankVision, and are now finally ready to go live with what is a best-in-class platform.

“After speaking with credit providers, and based on our long experience in this area, we know that it is what the market has been waiting for, and, unlike other providers, we will not be charging hefty set-up or monthly fees,” he added.

OpenBankVision filters data with categorisation tools before it is passed to users, automatically identifying salary payments, ongoing commitments and unusual activity, so rapid affordability and creditworthiness assessments can be made.

LendingMetrics director David Wylie said that the ‘free forever approach is designed to grow coverage dramatically.

“The more consumer bank accounts we have a token for, the more useful OpenBankVision will be to credit providers,” he stated, adding: “If we already have a current token for a particular consumer, any consented credit provider can access read-only information via OBV without having to re-apply for permission.”

The UK-based startup’s service is also targeted at gambling organisations, peer-to-peer lenders, automotive financiers and UK credit card providers. It allows users to consider applicants with thin credit files, confirm salary without requesting income references or paper proof, and can assist in approving applications which may otherwise have been declined.

Unlike other providers in this space, LendingMetrics stated that it has been supplying bank transaction data to credit providers for the past six years via screen-scraping technology and has used this experience to build its proprietary categorisation algorithm.

The company has authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority as a registered Account Information Service Provider (AISP).

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