Grab uses FICO data platform to widen SEA credit access

Grab Finance has expanded automated credit decisioning across six Southeast Asian countries by implementing the FICO Platform. It has rolled out more than 22 decision workflows and increased credit-offer eligibility rates by nearly 50%.

The programme supports lending decisions for three groups within the Grab app: driver-partners, passenger customers and merchant-partners. The work is part of a regional effort to extend formal credit access to users without traditional credit records, while maintaining risk controls.

The rollout also highlights a broader shift in Southeast Asia, where consumer platforms increasingly use their own transaction and engagement data for underwriting. In markets with limited credit bureau coverage, lenders often have sparse histories for large parts of the workforce, including gig-economy drivers and small merchants.

Alternative signals

Grab Finance uses behavioural and transactional signals from activity inside the superapp, including ride frequency, merchant revenues and payment history. The system generates automated, pre-approved offers that appear in the app.

Credit offers are designed to be contextual and real time, placing lending decisions alongside other day-to-day services such as mobility and deliveries.

Andre Tan, Regional Head, Lending Risk Platforms at Grab Finance, said the company is using ecosystem data to widen access. "Grab saw a strategic opportunity to make financing in Southeast Asia more accessible by leveraging our superapp ecosystem and behavioral data," Tan said. "Using FICO Platform, we can deliver contextual, real-time credit offers across multiple verticals within the Grab super app. This enables us to expand financial inclusion by providing credit access for underserved users who are economically active but often overlooked by traditional lenders."

Regional complexity

Southeast Asia has a fragmented regulatory landscape for lending, banking and data protection. Requirements vary by country, even where consumer behaviours and platform services are similar. This creates challenges for firms seeking consistent operating models across multiple markets while still meeting local rules.

Grab Finance said the rollout accounted for local regulations and privacy commitments, and underscored the need for compliance and explainability as decisioning expands across borders and customer segments.

The project also reflects a wider shift in regional lending, where product design and risk management increasingly rely on digital footprints. In practice, underwriting can combine bank-style checks with platform-specific indicators such as driving regularity, delivery-order volumes or merchant settlement patterns.

Workflow build

Phase one was delivered across the six countries in under eight months, according to the companies. The project produced 22 decision workflows covering eligibility assessment and other steps that can be automated as part of credit decisioning.

Tan said the initiative addressed a gap in conventional scoring for many workers and small businesses. "We had millions of drivers and merchants who were invisible to traditional banks but were earning real income every day on our platform," he said. "We knew we could change that equation, but we needed technology that could support our efforts to see what conventional credit scoring couldn't."

Nikhil Behl, President, Software at FICO, linked the project to a broader trend of lenders using non-traditional data sources for credit assessment.

"What Grab Finance has accomplished here is remarkable. They've essentially turned everyday digital behavior into a credit passport for millions of people who were previously invisible to traditional banking," Behl said. "When a taxi driver in Jakarta can get credit based on their ride patterns, or a food merchant in Bangkok can access working capital through their delivery history, that's not just innovation, it's economic transformation at scale."

Award recognition

Grab Finance has won a 2026 FICO Decision Award for Financial Inclusion. The awards programme uses independent judges and assesses project scale, use of best practices and measurable outcomes.

Sam Abadir, Research Director, Risk and Compliance at IDC Financial Insights and a judge for the FICO Decision Awards, said the project stood out for its regional scope. "This project drew attention because Grab Finance addressed credit assessment at a regional scale, rather than focusing solely on a discrete technology implementation," Abadir said. "The judges noted how the organization operationalized regulatory diversity across Southeast Asia within its credit decisioning framework, demonstrating an approach that integrates compliance requirements directly into platform design."

Grab operates across deliveries, mobility and digital financial services in Southeast Asia, serving consumers, merchants and drivers in hundreds of cities. It also runs digital banking services through GXS Bank in Singapore and GXBank in Malaysia.

FICO said the work reflects a growing focus among lenders and technology vendors on decisioning systems that can be adapted market by market while still running as a unified programme across multiple customer portfolios.