Loan Underwriting Gets Artificial Intelligence Upgrade

However, fintech startups are working to upend the traditional underwriting process with an injection of machine learning technology. Datanomers, a New Jersey-based fintech startup, has developed a "financial risk profiler" that trawls the web for unstructured non-financial data on loan applicants, indexes the information and generates a report for the underwriter. Datanomers' Risk Profiler collects billions of data points available on the web about small businesses to create a credit profile for borrowers. So rather than digging through pages upon pages of a small business owner's reviews via Yelp Inc (NYSE: YELP) and Angie's List Inc (NASDAQ: ANGI) for signs of unsound business practices, an underwriter can simply enter the proprietor's name into a Google (parent company, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL))-like interface that will produce a PDF report of the prospective borrower's creditworthiness.