Its group CEO, Alex Marsh, was previously UK CEO of Klarna. He joined Salad in 2023 as a non-executive director and chaired the Salad Finance board before stepping up to lead the group. Speaking to The Fintech Times, he set out what transaction data shows that a credit file does not, and what it would take for mainstream lenders to serve the borrowers they currently turn away.

Marsh’s starting point is that a credit score looks backwards. “A credit score can tell you a lot about someone’s past if they’ve used credit products, but very little about how they are managing their money today,” he said. “It can capture missed payments or a CCJ that may sit on someone’s file for years, but it often will not tell you whether they are paying their rent on time, covering their bills, managing a tight budget well or showing signs of financial stress right now.”

Open Banking, he argued, fills that gap with a real-time picture of income, expenditure and financial behaviour. “Having analysed billions of transactions at Salad, what we see again and again is that many people who are declined by mainstream lenders are actually managing their finances responsibly, living within their monthly paycheck and meeting all their payments such as direct debits,” he said.

“They are not necessarily shut out because they cannot manage their money. Often, they manage it much better than people who have a larger income.

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