UK’s Salad Money secures first AISP licence given to a CDFI lender

UK-based social purpose lender Salad Money has secured the first Open Banking licence given to an independent lender, meaning it can access applicants’ Open Banking data directly, rather than via a licensed partner.

Salad Money announced that it has been registered as an official account information services provider (AISP) by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, in what it called “an industry first” for a consumer Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).

With an applicant’s consent, Salad Money accesses their Open Banking data and then, using its own proprietary machine learning system, analyses the information about income and expenditure to make a “fair” lending decision.

Tim Rooney, chief executive officer of Salad Money, said: “Quite rightly, AISP registration requires a business to demonstrate it meets very high standards across multiple areas, and it has taken Salad almost a year of effort to secure the first AISP licence the FCA has ever granted to a CDFI lender.”

He added: “We’re thrilled that our award-winning team can now move forward with plans which will boost our customers’ financial resilience and we thank the FCA, alongside all of our customers and partners, for their trust in how we operate our business.”

At the start of 2024, Salad Money teamed up with D•One, the ClearScore Group’s Open Banking business unit, to improve the accuracy and speed of its affordability assessments.

At the Open Banking Expo Awards 2023, which took place in London on 19 October last year, Salad Money won the Open Banking for Good Award.