Kayana, Trusting Social partner to roll out alternative credit score for underserved Filipinos

• CTTO

Kayana and Trusting Social Philippines have entered into a strategic partnership to co-develop an alternative credit scoring system aimed at expanding access to financial services for Filipinos who remain outside traditional banking and lending frameworks.

The initiative centers on a new creditworthiness signal powered by artificial intelligence and alternative data, designed to help banks, digital lenders, and fintech platforms assess borrowers who lack formal credit histories. By combining Kayana’s data intelligence capabilities with Trusting Social’s AI-driven scoring models, the partnership aims to enable more inclusive and responsible lending decisions at scale.

The move comes as financial inclusion in the Philippines continues to lag behind regional peers. Data from the World Bank’s Global Findex Database 2025 showed that only 50.2 percent of Filipino adults had financial accounts in 2024, slightly lower than 51.4 percent in 2021 and well below the 83.3 percent average across East Asia and the Pacific. The gap is more pronounced among first-time borrowers, many of whom remain invisible to traditional credit scoring systems.

“Providing an alternative credit score is our commitment to economic mobility,” said Jojo Gendrano. “By fusing rigorous data acquisition with advanced modeling, we’re turning everyday behavioral signals into credit opportunities so lenders can say yes to more deserving Filipinos, responsibly.”

Under the partnership, Kayana will generate behavioral attributes based on alternative data sources, while Trusting Social will apply its scoring models to convert these into lender-ready outputs. The resulting credit score will be delivered through an API-based service, allowing financial institutions to integrate it directly into their lending systems.

For Johnny Escaler, the collaboration is positioned as more than a technology rollout, but a step toward widening participation in the formal economy.

“When more Filipinos access credit for the first time, they build and grow something. They step into an economy that finally made room for them,” Escaler said. “That’s the kind of impact that outlasts any product or platform.”

As digital lending continues to expand in the country, the partnership signals a broader shift toward alternative data-driven models, particularly in markets where traditional financial records remain limited.