What is Open Banking?
Open Banking allows applicants to securely share their financial data with authorised third parties. In the NestEgg dashboard, these data are used to make faster, more informed, and fairer lending decisions, offering a comprehensive view of the applicant's current financial situation. These are often referred to as 'affordability checks'.
Requesting Open Banking Connections
In most cases Open Banking is connected during the application.
However, requests can also be made through the Affordability tab in the Uploads sub-tab, where you’ll also find options for payslip and bank statement requests. For more details, see our articles on Open Banking Requests, Payslip Requests, and Bank Statement Requests.
Note: you can override the email address in the uploads tab. For example an applicant may have changed their email address. However, this will not change the primary email address that was used for the application itself.
Viewing Open Banking Data
Open Banking data is accessible through the sub-tabs in the Affordability tab, each offering specific insights:
Income Tab: Displays all income sources for the applicant, with categorisation for regular and irregular income.
Spend Tab: Breaks down all outgoing transactions, helping assess spending patterns.
You'll also see what affordability rules have been triggered in this tab.Transfers Tab: Lists transfers between the applicant’s accounts, useful for identifying internal fund movements.
Balances Tab: Shows a graph of account balances over time with options to view data for the last 90 days, 180 days, or the maximum available data.
Select accounts from a drop-down menu.
Click any point on the graph to view transactions for that day.
In the transactions table, payments out are highlighted in red, and payments in are shown in neutral grey.
Warnings Tab: Displays affordability alerts derived from the applicant’s financial data.
Accounts Tab: Provides details of all connected accounts, including provider, account name, holder, current balance, overdraft, and available balance.
50/30/20 Tab: For a breakdown of spending in line with the 50/30/20 rule, see our guide on 50/30/20 Analysis.
Uploads Tab: Used to send Open Banking, payslip, and bank statement requests. This tab also stores any uploaded documents for review.
Self-Categorisation: Taking Control of Transaction Categories
NestEgg provides the ability to manually adjust transaction categories within the Decision Engine Dashboard. Accurate categorisation helps improve affordability assessments by offering a clear view of an applicant’s spending patterns.
Why Categorisation Matters: Proper categorisation groups spending into meaningful categories (e.g., transport, utilities, insurance) for better analysis.
How to Update Categories: Select a transaction, click the three vertical dots next to the current category, and choose a new category.
Advanced Matching: Apply changes to similar transactions using options like "Contains," "Starts with," or "Exact match."
Review and Apply: Preview matched transactions, refine criteria if needed, and apply updates.
For a detailed guide, see Self-Categorisation.
Why Open Banking?
Speed: Reduces loan processing times significantly.
Fairness: Decisions are based on real-time financial data rather than historical credit issues alone.
Clarity: Detailed data on income, spending, and account balances ensures transparency in decision-making.
By fully utilising Open Banking and features like self-categorisation, you can enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and fairness of your lending decisions.