CBA and Credit Savvy to help Australians navigate the credit landscape amid COVID-19

By Edil Corneille

Credit Savvy is extending its services as part of its partnership with x15ventures, the venture building arm of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), where Credit Savvy will offer its services directly to the customers of CBA through the CommBank app. Since launching in 2015, Credit Savvy has provided nearly 29 million free credit scores to Australian consumers.

“Building and scaling the next generation of digital services is exactly what x15ventures is about. It’s clear that Credit Savvy has a role to play in helping Australians reset and better understand their financial wellbeing, especially in the wake of the coronavirus impacts. It’s a service people really value, and that’s why we’re pleased to connect to the CommBank customer base,” said Toby Norton-Smith, managing director of x15ventures.

Credit score provider and emerging FinTech, Credit Savvy, found 614,000 people checked their credit score between March and August 2020, a 36 percent increase on the same period in 2019.

Leo Hillary, Credit Savvy’s managing director, said: “The increased interest in credit scores came as many Australians stared in the face of financial uncertainty amid mass lockdowns and job losses.

“With many Australians having to make the difficult decision to defer their loans, or make other adjustments to their finances, it is no wonder people wanted to know how this would affect them and their financial future. This will be essential as consumers tackle the ongoing effects of the pandemic in the coming months while building financial buffers to help them play their part in the country’s economic recovery.”

The latest data from Credit Savvy coincides with the launch of two new features designed to help Australians better understand their credit score and how and why it can change, as well as how they manage their finances so they can take action to improve their financial life.

The first, Credit Score Factors, provides Credit Savvy members with detailed information on the factors that could be influencing their credit score as well as opportunities for improvement. The factors are categorised into three types: helping, hurting, and opportunity.

People who have a negative event on their credit files such as a default or court judgment, will have a ‘hurting’ factor and be provided with tips on how they can demonstrate good credit behaviour.

Credit Savvy has also introduced Financial Wellbeing, a measurement tool developed by Commonwealth Bank and the University of Melbourne, which will help its members to assess their overall financial wellbeing.

Members can complete a short survey on their current financial situation and will then be provided with a financial wellbeing score between 0 and 100, helping its members to determine if they are financially having trouble, just coping, getting by, or doing great.

x15ventures is an Australian technology venture building entity, designed to deliver new digital solutions to benefit Australian consumers and businesses. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBA and operates its own delivery model, through a stand-alone management team.

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