Credit reporting agency eCredable announced a partnership with Urjanet, the world's leading provider of utility data, to expand credit access to millions of underbanked consumers and small businesses. With automated access to mobile phone, internet, and utility bill payment history from Urjanet, eCredable is able to report FCRA-compliant data to lenders and credit bureaus on behalf of businesses and consumers.

"The credit reporting industry hasn't fundamentally changed in more than a century," said Steve Ely, CEO of eCredable. "For the first time, consumers and small business owners have the ability to positively impact their credit scores. This is only possible because of Urjanet's ability to acquire user-permissioned data that eCredable can prepare for use in a highly regulated financial services industry."

Urjanet and eCredable have joined forces to build an industry-first pipeline for alternative credit data. With the global utility coverage and scalable technology of Urjanet's intelligent data platform, eCredable can refine and report phone, internet, and utility payment history to lenders and credit bureaus for millions of consumers and small businesses. When delivered directly into underwriting platforms, data from eCredable enables lenders to:

• Optimize the cost of underwriting by directly accessing credit data

• Reduce the number of no-file results received from a credit pull

• Significantly increase revenue opportunities by expanding into new markets and uncovering more qualified applicants

"Over the past several years, Urjanet has built thousands of integrations worldwide to enable easy access to phone, internet, and utility data," said Urjanet CEO Sanjoy Malik. "We're proud to work with eCredable to expand our global reach and enable access to credit for those who need it most."

Over 45 million consumers are considered "credit invisible" due to their lack of a traditional credit score. Mainstream credit scores like FICO Score® and VantageScore® would benefit from this data being present in core credit files at the national credit bureaus, but most phone, internet, and utility companies do not report this information. As a result, consumers do not get any credit for paying these bills on time every month.

The predictive accuracy of alternative data is well established: according to a FICO study on incorporating alternative data, more than one-third of newly scoreable consumers would have scores of 620 or above -- pushing them over the threshold to gain access to credit. What's missing however, is an accessible and scalable method of transferring that data into a credit file.

In addition, over six million micro and small businesses have no business credit score, which prevents them from accessing traditional credit products from mainstream providers. Many resort to using personal credit to run their business, which can expose them to significant risk and contributes nothing to building a business credit score for the future. Having even one phone, internet, or utility account linked to their eCredable profile allows this business to be scored, providing access to critical financial products to help grow their business.