Tamara Lifts Credit Approvals 32% Using Open Banking Data

Saudi fintech Tamara has increased credit approval rates by 32% for gig workers, freelancers, and non-salaried customers across the GCC after integrating real-time bank transaction data from Lean Technologies into its underwriting engine, expanding access to regulated consumer credit for a segment long excluded by traditional scoring models.

The shift, enabled by open banking infrastructure, doubled approval rates on credit limit increases and surfaced income signals for roughly 60% of applicants who previously showed no salary record in credit bureau files or salary certificate databases.

Why does traditional credit scoring miss the modern workforce?

Conventional credit decisioning in the Gulf relies heavily on three data sources: bureau files from SIMAH, employer-issued salary certificates, and static proof-of-income documents. That framework assumes a linear employment arrangement: one employer, one monthly salary, one predictable deposit.

It does not fit the applicant pool fintech lenders are now underwriting. Riyadh-based Tamara, founded in 2020 and valued at $1 billion after a $340 million Series C led by SNB Capital in December 2023, scaled into a customer base increasingly composed of e-commerce sellers, delivery riders, content creators, commission-based sales agents, and university students with part-time income. For these applicants, the bureau file is thin or empty, not because they lack financial discipline, but because their income never flows through the channels bureaus track.

Tamara's analysis of its thin-file applicant pool found that a significant share of credit-worthy users had no salary data visible through either the bureau or salary certificates. Under a traditional framework, those applicants either received conservative credit limits or outright rejections, regardless of their actual cash flow.

How does open banking data change the underwriting calculus?

Through Lean Technologies, a Riyadh- and Dubai-based open banking infrastructure provider licensed by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, Tamara gained consent-based access to live bank account data: verified income deposits, cash flow patterns, existing debt servicing, and spending behaviour.

The integration added four concrete inputs to Tamara's decisioning stack: income verified directly from bank transactions rather than declared figures, actual monthly cash flow and spending patterns, visibility into existing financial commitments across institutions, and a composite affordability signal drawn from behavioural data.

Critically, the system detects income categories that traditional frameworks cannot: freelance payments, marketplace earnings, commissions, rental income, dividends, and transfers from side businesses.

What were the measurable outcomes?

Two metrics define the result. Approval rates on credit limit increase requests rose 32%, with bank-verified income doubling the approval rate relative to the prior workflow. And among applicants who previously showed no salary record, Tamara now captures income signals for roughly 60% of the segment.

The partnership also unlocked a second-look lending flow. Applicants declined on insufficient data are now invited to link a bank account via Lean, at which point their application is re-assessed in seconds against verified transaction history rather than incomplete bureau records.

How does this fit the GCC open banking trajectory?

The Tamara-Lean integration lands as Saudi Arabia pushes open banking from regulatory framework to mainstream deployment. SAMA published its Open Banking Framework in late 2022 and began phased rollout of account information services in 2023. The UAE followed with the Central Bank of the UAE's open finance regulation, published in 2024, extending the model beyond banking into insurance and investment data.

Lean has positioned itself as a primary beneficiary, raising a $67.5 million Series B in May 2024 led by General Catalyst, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and Duquesne Family Office. Its customer base includes stc pay, Jahez, and Tamara, giving it a meaningful share of high-volume consumer transaction data across the Kingdom.

The use case Tamara has demonstrated, using transaction data to extend rather than restrict credit, mirrors patterns seen in the UK following PSD2 implementation, where lenders including Monzo and Zopa used account data to approve thin-file borrowers that traditional bureau-only models rejected.

Why This Matters to FinanceX Readers

The Tamara case quantifies what open banking advocates have argued in principle: consent-based transaction data materially expands the addressable market for regulated consumer credit without loosening risk controls. A 32% lift in approvals, achieved without a corresponding rise in default provisioning, shifts the ROI calculation for any GCC lender still debating open banking integration.

For investors, the signal is twofold. First, infrastructure providers like Lean are becoming embedded in the underwriting stack of regional fintech champions, making them strategically durable rather than discretionary spend. Second, the gig and non-salaried segment, long treated as an underwriting problem, is now quantifiably bankable, which reshapes the total addressable market for consumer lending, BNPL, and earned-wage-access products across the region.

By Koen Vanderhoydonk - FinanceX Magazine