Tanyapong Thamavaranukupt, co-president of Thai fintech Ascend Cash, sees spending patterns—like journal subscriptions or cellular payments—as a sign of creditworthiness, notably in markets like Southeast Asia which have each a big underbanked inhabitants and underdeveloped monetary establishments.
“We don’t depend on conventional knowledge to make our mortgage choices,” he informed Fortune. As a substitute, Ascend Cash’s lending service, Ascend Nano, depends on knowledge from the corporate’s digital pockets, a service used to retailer and transact cash, and make funds. “We are able to see what forms of transactions customers make, the place they use their cash, the kind of cellphone they’re utilizing,” he explains.
That may construct a threat profile of a buyer that doesn’t depend on conventional proof, like monetary statements, payslips, or a credit score bureau evaluation. Take {a magazine} subscription: Tanyapong suggests {that a} consumer who commonly reads a publication is likely to be barely extra educated, and so could have a better revenue–and so could also be a safer particular person for Ascend to lend to.
Tanyapong reckons that about 20 million Thais, out of a bigger inhabitants of 70 million, ought to be capable of entry a mortgage. But the nation’s formal banks are solely lending to about 5 million prospects. That leaves round 15 million Thais who can’t get entry to financing although they might be creditworthy. “It’s not as a result of they’re not certified,” Tanyapong says. “It’s just because the standard gamers … use the very same mannequin that’s been there for the final 30 years.”
Micro- and small-sized companies usually don’t have monetary statements, that means they’ll’t persuade banks to supply them a mortgage. Many conventional lenders additionally depend on credit score bureaus, which don’t cowl many underbanked individuals, once more denying them entry to financing.
If banks don’t step in, mortgage sharks will
Monetary entry is a regional drawback. Round 225 million individuals in Southeast Asia lacked entry to a proper checking account in 2021, in response to calculations by the Middle for Influence Investing and Practices. Round 350 million couldn’t get entry to formal financing. Moreover, the SME Finance Discussion board in 2018 calculated that greater than half of the area’s SMEs couldn’t get entry to financing.
Those who want cash then flip to casual lenders, who can cost exorbitantly excessive rates of interest. Tanyapong says Ascend Cash’s nano loans might help get individuals out of the casual lending market, the place mortgage sharks can cost as a lot as 20% curiosity monthly. (Ascend Nano, by comparability, prices simply 2%.)
Ascend isn’t the one firm in Southeast Asia trawling buyer knowledge to construct threat profiles. Seize, Southeast Asia’s most profitable super-app, has tried to make use of knowledge gleaned from its ride-hailing and GrabPay companies to evaluate creditworthiness. Different regional platforms, just like the Philippines’ GCash and Vietnam’s Momo, additionally use knowledge collected from their digital wallets to assist prolong loans to customers.
Ascend Cash is the fintech arm for Thailand’s CP Group, a serious conglomerate with pursuits in retail, agriculture, and manufacturing. Ascend began with funds and cash switch, however low margins pushed the corporate to broaden to different monetary companies. Ascend Nano was one of many firm’s first initiatives, offering “nano finance,” tiny loans that may be as little as $20, to customers and small enterprises in Thailand.
Ascend Cash’s work offering financing to Thailand’s unbanked and underbanked populations helped get the fintech firm onto Fortune’s 2025 “Change the World” listing, which acknowledges companies that do good by way of their enterprise fashions.
Ascend Nano’s ties to the broader CP Group additionally assist it discover new prospects. Tanyapong notes that lots of their purchasers, notably those who run small roadside stalls, purchase their merchandise wholesale from the broader conglomerate. “Based mostly on their buy historical past, we can provide them a credit score line to purchase from CP Makro [the CP Group’s cash-and-carry wholesaler],” he explains, persevering with that prospects have managed to develop their enterprise by as much as two occasions their working capital.
Tanyapong spent 15 years in Thailand’s finance business, together with stints at GE Capital (Thailand) and KrungSri Ayudhya Financial institution. He then led retail banking at Krungthai Financial institution, one of many highest-ranked Thai firms on the Southeast Asia 500, at No. 57. He joined Ascend Cash as its co-president in 2016.
Small-scale lending is a aggressive market. The highest 5% of companies seize half the area’s customers, in response to a 2025 report from Bain, Temasek, and Google. The remaining is served by a “lengthy tail of smaller, aggressive apps” in markets with excessive demand for “quick credit score.” Half of those companies shut inside two years.
Ascend can also be taking a look at different, “nano-” variations of economic companies, together with insurance coverage and investing. “We frequently discover our prospects don’t even have insurance coverage,” Tanyapong says. “We’ve greater than ten million bike drivers, they usually’re at all times entering into accidents.”
