Self Lender is pleased to announce its inclusion in the inaugural list of winners of the Inclusive Fintech 50. The Inclusive Fintech 50 is a competition launched in February to help early-stage fintech companies attract capital and resources to benefit the world’s 3 billion financially underserved people. The competition was organized by MetLife Foundation and Visa Inc., with global nonprofit Accion and World Bank Group member IFC.

In the United States, 45 million adults are outside the purview of credit bureaus, while another 80 million have a subprime credit score. Self Lender’s flagship product is the Credit Builder Account, a small-dollar CD-secured installment loan that helps consumers build credit.

Self Lender is a mobile credit and savings application with an individualized payment plan commensurate with a consumer’s budget. Behind the scenes, however, Self Lender is an open-banking platform that originates and services small CD-secured installment loans that are financed by banking partners. Self Lender onboards and services customers, helps manage compliance, relays data to the credit reporting agencies and processes all payments through a ledger. To date, 325,000 Americans have increased their credit scores by 6 million points and have saved over USD $250 million in their Self Lender accounts.

“We’re honored to be recognized for our efforts so far at making credit more accessible to people in the U.S. who have low-to-moderate income,” said James Garvey, CEO of Self Lender. “We’re also excited to join such a diverse list of like-minded startups trying to improve financial health globally.”

The 50 winners – which were selected from 400 eligible applicants – demonstrate the power of financial technology to expand access, usage, and quality of financial services in advanced and emerging markets.

Approximately 30 percent of the winners provide credit products to underserved segments, and approximately 25 percent offer infrastructure solutions like biometrics software that enables financial institutions to expand access to previously excluded groups. Fintechs offering insurance, payments and remittances services, and savings and personal financial management tools each made up approximately 15 percent of the winners.

SOURCE Self Lender, Inc.