Discover five lessons from Bank of Punjab’s digital lending transformation, including how alternative data and behavioural assessments are expanding financial inclusion.
Editor’s note: This article summarises key insights from Brendan le Grange’s How to Lend Money to Strangers podcast featuring Waqas Javed, Head of Data Science at Bank of Punjab.
We encourage readers to listen to the full episode, which is linked below:
EP202: Solving big problems in innovative ways, with Waqas Javed (Bank of Punjab)
When it comes to financial inclusion, few organisations have achieved the scale of the Bank of Punjab‘s recent digital lending programmes.
In a recent episode of How to Lend Money to Strangers, host Brendan le Grange sat down with Waqas Javed, Head of Data Science at Bank of Punjab, to discuss how the bank has redesigned lending journeys using alternative data, behavioural assessments and customer-centric design to reach hundreds of thousands of previously underserved borrowers.
The full episode is well worth listening to. Below are five lessons from the discussion which could be applied to lending in any emerging market.
According to Waqas, it is access, not demand, that is the real challenge.
With only 2.4% of Pakistan’s population accessing formal lending, many people still rely on family and friends when they need financial support. The opportunity for lenders isn’t to create demand, but to remove the barriers preventing people from accessing appropriate financial products.
Traditional lending processes can unintentionally exclude the very people they are designed to serve.
As Waqas explains, lengthy applications, extensive documentation and repeated branch visits often cause applicants to abandon the process before a lending decision is even made.
The Bank of Punjab responded by redesigning the customer journey from end to end, creating a digital application process with minimal documentation that better reflects the realities of farmers, microbusinesses and other underserved customers.
Farming in Pakistan, where new models are helping those previously invisible to lenders.
Rather than relying on a single source of information, the bank experimented with a range of alternative data sources to better understand customers.
These included behavioural data through psychometric assessments, delivered in partnership with Begini, alongside innovations such as satellite imagery for specific programmes. The focus wasn’t simply on collecting more data, but on finding practical ways to make better lending decisions for people with limited traditional credit histories.
One of the most remarkable outcomes discussed in the podcast was the response to the digital journey.
Reflecting on the introduction of Begini’s three-minute psychometric assessment, Waqas was candid about the team’s initial reservations:
“Initially we were sceptical of what would come out of it; however, we were surprised at how easily people were able to complete that evaluation. Within a matter of three months, more than 1.8 million people completed that test. That was so astonishing for us.”
It’s a powerful reminder that well-designed digital experiences can achieve engagement at extraordinary scale. The behavioural data collected through the assessment then became part of the bank’s broader decisioning models, helping automate lending while maintaining a simple experience for applicants.
The conversation finishes with an important reminder that lending is only part of the story.
Bank of Punjab has now approved more than 900,000 farmers through the programme, representing lending of more than PKR 100 billion. Beyond expanding access to finance, Waqas describes the wider impact on agricultural productivity, job creation and Pakistan’s growing digital economy.
It’s a powerful example of how better lending journeys can benefit individuals, businesses and entire communities.
The programme demonstrates how digital lending, supported by behavioural data and modern decisioning models, can responsibly expand financial inclusion without sacrificing operational efficiency.
There are many more insights in the full discussion between Brendan le Grange and Waqas Javed, covering digital transformation, customer experience, alternative data and the future of financial inclusion.
If you’re interested in how lenders can responsibly expand access to credit at scale, we highly recommend listening to the full episode of How to Lend Money to Strangers.
Thank you to Brendan for bringing these important conversations to a wider audience and for highlighting innovative approaches from across the financial services industry.
Behavioural data measures how applicants interact with carefully designed digital assessments, providing additional insight that can complement traditional credit information when assessing creditworthiness.
Begini brings real-time, behavioural credit assessment to lenders across emerging markets — so you can grow your book into the borrowers traditional models never saw. Let’s talk about your portfolio.
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