Tim Kelleway of D.One recently offered a compelling view on how Open Banking is reshaping credit decisioning. His piece, titled Why Open Banking data heralds a new era of credit decisioning rightly called out the limits of CRA data and the opportunity Open Banking offers for expanding financial inclusion.
At Serene, we see these same issues every day – especially among the so-called “credit invisibles.”
But what if the biggest transformation Open Banking can enable isn’t just better credit decisions? It’s better customer care.
We’re not just in a lending crisis. We’re in a care crisis.
And Open Banking has a much bigger role to play.
At Serene, we don’t use Open Banking data to assess affordability. We use it to detect early signs of distress.
We look for subtle but powerful patterns – missed payments, income disruptions, changes in spending behaviours linked to emotional stress. These often signal deeper life events: mental health decline, bereavement, illness, burnout, or a breakdown in resilience.
But today, most financial institutions miss these signs. Not because they don’t care – but because they don’t have the tools to see them.
In our recent UK-wide survey:
That’s not just a service gap. That’s a trust gap.
As Tim rightly points out, lending decisions often revolve around two questions:
But under new regulations like the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty, a more urgent question is emerging: What’s going on in this person’s life—and how can we support them?
Here’s what the broader data tells us:
That’s not just a missed opportunity. It’s a missed responsibility.
And it’s time to get personal.
Our survey also revealed a strong willingness to share data – when the purpose is clear and trust is in place:
This tells us three things:
That’s where Serene comes in: a neutral, consent-first bridge between customers and providers.
We enable personalised, context-aware insights – without needing full access to raw data.
Tim is right – Open Banking is helping level the playing field for credit access.
But now, we need to apply that same innovation to proactive support.
With the right signals and ethical AI, we can spot and respond to risk before it becomes a crisis.
That means:
This isn’t just regulatory compliance. It’s AI-enabled empathy – at scale.
The next frontier for Open Banking isn’t just better lending or financial inclusion. It’s emotional and situational inclusion.
That means supporting customers across the full journey.
We’re seeing a growing appetite to layer vulnerability intelligence on top of existing risk models – not to replace them, but to enhance them.
This adds depth to decisions, context to support, and confidence to credit strategies – where approvals become more inclusive, servicing more personalised, and risk more contextualised.
Serene adds depth to how risk gets split – bringing emotional, behavioural, and context-aware insights into the equation.
Because the truth is, vulnerability is the norm – not the exception.
And in a world that’s only getting more complex, the question is no longer
can we use Open Banking for good?
It’s whether we choose to.
Want to learn more about what consumers want from financial services?
👉 Download our full consumer insights report ‘Empowering Change: What Consumers Want from Financial Services’
Ready to see how Contact us today to learn how Serene can help you proactively identify, understand, and support vulnerable customers while driving business value.