Avoid hanging out at the liquor store and casino if you want an online loan in Russia. Bank's are starting to use location tracking information to understand an online lenders credit worthiness.
AlterGeo signed a deal with several large banks in Russia, who will now began to use AlterGeo’s location data when assessing online a borrowers’ credit rating. The company is not disclosing the names of its partner banks due, it says, to “a number of NDAs”. Anton Baranchuk, CEO at AlterGeo, says their platform “allows our partners to learn more of their potential borrowers’ honesty and reliability in order to reduce risks when working with online credit loans.” This new product consists of “geo-scoring”, which allows banks to “geo-identify each potential borrower and thus to draw conclusions regarding his/her solvency, honesty, and so on” said a spokesperson.