Interview with Stefan Agergaard Hansen – The Future of Credit Risk Assessments with Monthio
TL;DR
In an exclusive interview, Stefan Agergaard reveals:
High-quality data allows for more accurate credit assessments, increased loan approvals, and reduced risk for financial institutions.
Open banking creates a win-win scenario, making the loan process more transparent and smooth for consumers while accelerating decision-making for bank advisors.
Financial institutions can overcome inertia by adopting a modular approach and partnering with third-party providers to streamline their loan approval processes.
Discover how Monthio leverages the latest open banking technologies, enabling them to revolutionize the loan approval landscape. At Enable Banking, we proudly collaborate with innovative companies like Monthio, which are transforming creditworthiness checks for financial institutions and consumers alike. In this Partner Spotlight, we chat with Stefan Agergaard Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer at Monthio. He shares valuable insights on how financial institutions can prepare for the future and the pivotal role that open banking will play in this evolution. Explore how innovative technologies are reshaping the future of loan approvals and compliance. Last year, we were in the press together for enabling their successful launch into Spain, a key milestone as they expand beyond the Nordics to streamline loan processes across Europe. In this Partner Spotlight, we chat with Stefan Agergaard Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer at Monthio. He shares valuable insights on how financial institutions can prepare for the future and the pivotal role that open banking will play in this evolution. Explore how innovative technologies are reshaping the future of loan approvals and compliance.
To start, could you please tell us a little about yourself and Monthio?
My name is Stefan Agergaard Hanson and I joined Monthio as their Chief Commercial Officer three years ago. My main focus is ensuring customer success, that is, helping our clients maximize the value of our products to meet their needs. At Monthio, we aim to make the credit decisions and loan approval processes seamless, digital and instant, benefiting credit advisors and applicants alike. We provide financial institutions with credit risk assessments based on comprehensive, real-time financial data. Harnessing open banking, we provide financial institutions with overviews of consumers’ finances based on real-time data. This leads to better-informed credit assessments, faster evaluations, and an improved customer experience.
What separates Monthio from other credit risk assessment solutions?
Our commitment to high data quality is what distinguishes us from other solutions. We capture more data than other solutions by using complementary data sources, and we ensure that this data is well-categorized and free from noise.
This high-quality data allows for more accurate credit risk assessments, enabling our customers to improve their credit decisions and reduce risk. With more accurate assessments, they have been able to approve a larger number of customers while easily complying with regulatory requirements. Additionally, since we engage directly with consumers, we can provide them with budget insights, allowing them to understand and verify their financial situations.
How does open banking improve the consumer experience?
Open banking has drastically improved the transparency and efficiency of the loan application process. In the past, applicants would have to manually submit bank statements or other documents to verify income or to complete steps in the lending flow —a time-consuming and inconvenient task. They would need to find and upload these documents one by one. Now, with Open Banking, applicants can seamlessly share their financial data. This innovation eliminates many of the manual, inefficient processes, driving higher conversion rates, improving the accuracy of credit risk decisions, and accelerating the speed of evaluations. Bank advisors can quickly access reliable data without manual verification, enabling better-informed credit assessments, faster decisions, and a smoother, more convenient consumer experience.
What role will open banking play in the future of the credit industry?
Nordic countries have been leaders in adopting open banking within the credit industry, having pre-implemented the EU Consumer Credit Directive. As the implementation deadline for this directive approaches across the EU, I anticipate similar adoption rates elsewhere. At Monthio, we are expanding throughout Europe, as we believe that in this digital age, open banking offers enhanced tools for creating a seamless credit assessment experience. Consumers deserve nothing less.
Where do you see Monthio in the next five years?
In five years, we envision Monthio operating across Europe. While countries digitize at varying paces, the new PSD3 and PSR regulations should establish a stable open banking infrastructure throughout the EU. Our partnership with Enable Banking allows us to access a scalable infrastructure that will facilitate our expansion into new European markets.
What is the best thing about working with Enable Banking?
The best thing about working with Enable Banking is the access to their stable and high-quality TPP infrastructure. In addition, we highly appreciate their responsiveness and professionalism, which makes them very easy to work with. They are driven by helping others. In short, we chose Enable Banking as our partner due to their responsiveness and high-quality product.
What advice would you like to give to financial institutions looking to streamline their loan approval processes?
Recognize your strengths and leverage them. While trust in banks often hinges on compliance, it can also lead to inertia. To counter this, I recommend adopting a modular approach by partnering with third-party providers who can streamline processes. We have seen this model work well for neo-banks.
At Monthio, we ensure that the bank retains full control. Our role as data processors is to facilitate data collection, making it easier for everyone to benefit from this information. While banks have traditionally relied on internal transaction data, utilizing it for onboarding new customers presents a unique challenge — one that our solution effectively addresses.
Monthio is at the forefront of revolutionizing credit risk assessments by combining comprehensive, real-time financial data with open banking technologies. At Enable Banking, we're proud to partner with forward-thinking companies like Monthio, supporting their mission to enhance creditworthiness checks and streamline loan approval processes for financial institutions.
If you're interested in discovering how our Open Banking APIs can transform your credit risk models, we're here to help you get started.