Introducing v2.0 of our Affordability API

Over the last few months, many of the technologies that underpin our Open Banking Affordability capabilities have moved on in leaps and bounds. That has meant that Bud's clients have more and more flexibility but it has also added some complexity to the simple integrations we’re known for. The new Affordability API fixes this - bringing together several of our key underlying capabilities into one easy-to-implement solution.

Feedback from clients has been clear that they want to be able to get going quickly before delving into the potential for customisation. With that in mind, we've simplified the affordability API to return a set of key data points that cover everything clients need to insert Open Banking data into their lending flows with zero hassle. These data points include:

• Essential vs non-essential spending
• Fixed vs Flexible spending
• Net disposable income
• Net discretionary income
• Spending groups (spending totals for groups of categories mapped to the Standard Financial Statement)

Essential vs Non-essential, Fixed vs Flexible

It’s important to note that the types of data points we return aren’t exclusive to each other. Think of essential vs non-essential and fixed vs flexible as a matrix where categories of spending can fall into one of four cells. All of Bud’s 300 + categories can be represented in this way.

Standardising spending groups

For this version of the affordability API, we've simplified things by using the Money Advice Service's Standard Financial Statement as the basic template. Those who want complete flexibility will still have access to Bud's flexible mapping between category level totals and their own affordability scorecards, but if you just want to get going quickly, this will get you there.

Coming soon...

A lot of work is going into our affordability propositions at the moment and there's an exciting roadmap for the next few months including:

• New, out of the box user insights built using the new features in our Intelligence product will give clients better understanding of how resilient applicants financial stiuations are.
• Significant upgrades to our dashboards and agent tools will deliver more streamlined workflows and enable agents / client team members to explore customer data in new ways.
• Deep dives into benefits income and a new version of our income verification tool will help organisations get a nuanced and reliable picture of how applicants are earning money.
• Automatic 90-day reconsent will allow for usecases that require ongoing engagement between lenders and their customers...
  
  and much more...
  
  If you'd like to talk through the new API or get a debrief on our plans for Q2 and Q3 this year, get in touch. We'd love to talk.