Grab Finance Expands Credit Access Across Southeast Asia Using FICO Platform, Delivering 22 Workflows in Six Countries
Region's leading superapp advances financial inclusion for millions by applying advanced decisioning to behavioral data
FICO (NYSE:FICO)
Highlights:
- Grab Finance has increased credit offer eligibility rates for its users by nearly 50%
- Grab Finance implemented 22 decision workflows across six countries in Southeast Asia in under eight months
- Grab Finance has won a 2026 FICO® Decision Award for Financial Inclusion
Grab Finance, the financial services arm of Southeast Asia's leading superapp, is using the industry-leading capabilities of FICO® Platform to transform credit access across the region. By implementing more than 22 decision workflows across six countries, the company has increased credit offer eligibility rates by nearly 50% for its users while serving more than 46 million consumers, plus millions of merchants and drivers across its ecosystem. The transformation has enabled more of Grab's drivers, merchants, and passengers to not just access formal credit, but to do this at a much faster rate.
The solution uses appropriate behavioral data, including ride frequency, merchant revenues and payment history, supported by the industry-leading capabilities of FICO Platform to enable automated pre-approved offers across Grab's ecosystem, in line with applicable laws/regulations in the region and Grab's privacy commitments.
More information: https://www.fico.com/en/fico-platform
"Grab saw a strategic opportunity to make financing in Southeast Asia more accessible by leveraging our superapp ecosystem and behavioral data," said Andre Tan, Regional Head, Lending Risk Platforms at Grab Finance. "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."
Breaking Down Barriers: Conquering Southeast Asia's Credit Challenges
Southeast Asia, home to more than 700 million people, has one of the world's largest underbanked populations. Grab Finance saw an opportunity to deliver responsible, scalable credit services across this diverse and complex region, given Grab's scale and data-rich ecosystem.
One of the key challenges faced by many individuals and businesses in the region as they seek credit was data scarcity arising from their lack of traditional credit bureau history, leaving them with thin or no files at the bureau. Grab needed to develop alternative risk models using in-app behavioral signals, such as ride patterns, merchant activity and payment habits.
"We had millions of drivers and merchants who were invisible to traditional banks but were earning real income every day on our platform," said Tan. "We knew we could change that equation, but we needed technology that could support our efforts to see what conventional credit scoring couldn't."
Additionally, the fragmented regulatory landscape meant credit, banking and data protection laws differ significantly across Southeast Asian countries, requiring localized compliance and explainability without losing regional consistency.
Rapid Time-to-Value
In less than eight months, FICO was able to deliver phase one of the transformation across six countries Grab operates in, enabling Grab to automate key processes such as credit eligibility assessment. The ambitious project involved 22 separate decision workflows delivered across the region and Grab's three customer portfolios (driver-partners, passengers and merchant-partners).
"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," said Nikhil Behl, president, software at FICO. "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."
For its achievements, Grab Finance won a 2026 FICO® Decision Award for Financial Inclusion.
"This project drew attention because Grab Finance addressed credit assessment at a regional scale, rather than focusing solely on a discrete technology implementation," said Sam Abadir, research director, risk and compliance, IDC Financial Insights, and a judge for the FICO Decision Awards. "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."
About Grab Finance
Grab is a leading superapp in Southeast Asia, operating across the deliveries, mobility and digital financial services sectors. Serving over 800 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – Grab enables millions of people every day to order food or groceries, send packages, hail a ride or taxi, pay for online purchases or access services such as lending and insurance, all through a single app. We operate supermarkets in Malaysia under Jaya Grocer and Everrise, which enables us to bring the convenience of on-demand grocery delivery to more consumers in the country. As part of our financial services offerings, we also provide digital banking services through GXS Bank in Singapore and GXBank in Malaysia. Grab was founded in 2012 with the mission to drive Southeast Asia forward by creating economic empowerment for everyone. Grab strives to serve a triple bottom line – we aim to simultaneously deliver financial performance for our shareholders and have a positive social impact, which includes economic empowerment for millions of people in the region, while mitigating our environmental footprint.
About the FICO® Decision Awards
The FICO Decision Awards recognize organizations that are achieving remarkable success using FICO solutions. A panel of independent judges with deep industry expertise evaluates nominations based upon measurable improvement in key metrics; demonstrated use of best practices; project scale, depth and breadth; and innovative uses of technology. The 2026 judges are:
- Sam Abadir, research director, risk & compliance, IDC Financial Insights
- Shrimanth Adla, senior director, credit risk strategy and analytics, Comcast
- Manoj Agrawal, group editor, Banking Frontiers
- Courtney Haan, strategic payments experience manager, Velera (Previous Winner)
- Shelly Kramer, principal analyst at Kramer & Company and theCube Research
- Andy Lawrie, credit risk tech lead at Nationwide Building Society (Previous Winner)
- Lisa Morgan, technology journalist and contributor at InformationWeek
- Déborah Oliveira, founder and editor-in-chief at IT Forum
The winners of the FICO Decision Awards will be spotlighted at and win tickets to FICO® World 2026, May 19-22, 2026, at the Signia By Hilton hotel, Orlando, Florida.
About FICO
FICO (NYSE:FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 80 countries do everything from protecting 4 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and has been made available in over 40 other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency.
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Neil Mirano
RICE for FICO
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neil.mirano@ricecomms.com
FICO
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