Introducing: Grab’s new Cash Loan for consumers

Grab’s driver-partners and merchants already have access to tailor-made financial products through the Grab platform. However, a significant gap remained in our ecosystem: our every-day Grab users.

We are excited to pull back the curtain on our new Cash Loan product for consumers—a solution designed specifically for the estimated tens of millions of Grab users who currently lack access to traditional credit.

The credit gap

In Southeast Asia, underbanked isn’t just a buzzword. The majority of our consumers do not own a credit card. When emergencies strike or financial flexibility is needed for daily expenses, traditional banks often don’t want to serve them. Many people in Southeast Asia work in the informal sector, leaving them with no documented credit score. In a pinch, there’s sometimes no other option than to borrow from unlicensed or even predatory lenders.

We’ve already created a solution that addresses this credit gap for our driver- and delivery partners, as well as our merchants. By using their on-platform earnings data—in addition to other data signals—we are able to offer tailor-made cash advances.

But for consumers, who don’t earn on Grab, we had to think differently.

How it works: combining multiple data signals

To responsibly offer cash loans to our consumers, we’ve built a sophisticated decisioning engine that looks at more than just a bank balance. We combine a number of signals to create a holistic combined score, including ride frequency, average order value on GrabFood, and how long they have been a Grab user.

Based on these criteria, our system identifies Grab users that are eligible for a loan. Only preapproved consumers will see any loan offers.