First Principles
Most of the world has no credit score.
When the file is missing, you do not deny the customer. You build the score from the life they already live.
Most borrowers in the Global South have no credit history - not a bad one, none at all.
So the lenders rebuilt underwriting from first principles. In Cairo, credit is scored on phone and behavioural data. In Bogota, on open-finance rails that show what an informal worker really earns. In Nairobi, the daily repayment on a solar unit becomes the file itself.
When the file is missing, you do not deny the customer. You build the score from the life they already live.
Source: MNT-Halan, 2025; Monet, 2026; M-KOPA, 2024.