Making loans without borrowing history.

New lenders are popping up with claims that new data can be used to make loans to customers lacking enough borrowing history to secure credit from firms taking the traditional approach. What I find comical is that this is taking place within customer bases where the incumbent lender has realized increasing losses related to defaults. An article in the WSJ point out that Synchrony Financial, one of the largest providers of credit to WMT customers, has seen shares fall “amid concern that rising defaults could hit profits” and simultaneously a new lender [Affirm Inc.] has emerged to target “people who don’t have enough of a borrowing history to get a credit card.”