Back in 2011, there was one and only way to get approved for an auto loan – and that was having a good credit score. As a first generation immigrant from South Korea, I had no idea what a credit score was and I certainly didn’t have one either! In fact, I got denied from getting an auto loan five times – even though I had a great bank data (checking account showing good income, investment account, no debt) but no one cared to use that data. It was credit score or bust.
More than a decade later, this week, I heard the news of 1033 while sitting in a driverless car in San Francisco. “Wow, the world does change” I thought, and smiled. It gives me great hope that the long and ambitious journey of TomoCredit is going somewhere, and TomoCredit will not only benefit millions of consumers but simultaneously, Tomo Credit will be growing the Total Addressable Market for all of its lending and financial service partners.
Why did we start Tomo?
As corny as it sounds, we wanted to change the world. We wanted to live in a world where more people have access to credit. TomoCredit has been advocating for consumers, breaking down the barriers around financial inclusion, and to helping the financially excluded, those new to America, thin file consumers get access to essential credit.
In the process, Tomo has used its relationship with its customers to positively leverage consumer shared data and to develop increasingly sophisticated data science models that help us understand these consumers and their finances. At the same time, AI has seen an increase in the commoditization and access to LLM and generative AI technologies.
In essence, Tomo’s product strategy is to provide utility to consumers while also providing utility to financial service providers – all powered by AI driven insights that are enabled by data shared directly from the consumer to Tomo.
Tomo’s active relationship with its customers enables it to be in a position where its models not only provide value and insight to those extending credit and offering financial services to these consumers, but create real utility for these same consumers.
Traditionally the entire credit system has relied on the proprietary relationships between FICO (model builders), three major credit bureaus and financial institutions. Consumers were not a part of that transaction. Consumers’ credit repayment data was being accessed and sold by institutions without requiring any consumer consent or direct consumer engagements. In other words, customers had no direct relationship with the bureaus or financial institutions that sold their data and deemed them creditworthy (or not).
However, in the world of AI and open banking, the data belongs to consumers and consumers have regained the ownership of their data. This gives Tomo’s AI efforts greater access to consumer shared data, and provides wider coverage of consumer’s financial activities (daily transactions, W2 income, gig economy income, investment, etc) by accessing additional data sources.
Tomo brings win-win, a virtuous circle for everyone.
As Tomo customers benefit from Tomo’s AI models and tools, their financial capability improves and not only do they gain access to additional financial products, those financial services firms gain access to them.
Enabling and empowering these consumers is necessary for them to fully participate in the America economy, this also benefits the market at large.
*Section 1033, part of Dodd-Frank, gives consumers the right to access and share their financial data.