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Credit FAQs


The Many Faces of Off-Us Data: From Benchmarking to Line Assignment
Lenders know their own portfolios inside and out. But when it comes to growth, risk management, and product strategy, the smartest players don’t just look inward — they look outward. “Off-us” data — information about customer behavior and lending performance outside a company’s own book — is becoming a critical lever for success. Here are a few ways we’ve seen lenders use off-us data to sharpen decisions: Benchmarking Performance One lender in Asia used bureau data to compare

Brandon Homuth
Nov 24


Scaling Credit Safely: How Risk and Growth Can Coexist
For many financial services companies, lending is the next big step. Payments, deposits, and other services create a strong base, but credit creates a large, profitable business. The challenge? Well, it’s credit. Not just another product feature, a mismanaged credit product can sink a business. One solution is to move very slowly, but that has its own costs: wasted runway, time, and opportunity. At Ensemblex, we know that credit and fast growth are compatible under discipline

Brandon Homuth
Oct 27


When Should I Hire an Executive Risk Advisor?
We get the question almost every week—from Series A founders, Heads of Lending at established fintechs, even board members. They’re...

Brandon Homuth
Oct 6


Poking the Bear: How Can I Engineer UX to Create A Data Advantage?
Years ago, while running at a subprime lending operation, we used to offer customers the option to receive their credit card via standard...

Brandon Homuth
Sep 15


From Growth at All Costs to Sustainable Profitability: Lessons from a Leading LatAm Fintech
Over the past decade, easy capital, VC expectations, and aggressive customer acquisition targets led many fintechs to pursue scale with a...

Brandon Homuth
Aug 27


How Can You Test Lending Ideas Without High Costs?
Many early-stage lenders hesitate to test new product ideas because of the perceived expense. That's a shame, because great testing...

Brandon Homuth
Aug 26


What Is ‘Outside-In’ Testing, And How Does It Accelerate Learning for Fintechs?
We recently worked with a fintech trying to increase the profitability of their loan product. The obvious lever: price. Lower the...

Brandon Homuth
Aug 4


Is Your Test Strategy Just Creating Noise?
Running tests has technically never been easier. With highly configurable back-end tech and sophisticated data analysis tools widely...

Brandon Homuth
Jul 7


Can Lenders Scale to the Mass Market Without Losing Control?
We see so many lenders get stuck in the same paradoxical situation: they're trying to expand their reach to the millions of underbanked...

Brandon Homuth
Jun 30


How to Avoid Common Pitfalls When Measuring Risk on a Revolving Credit Product
At Ensemblex, we work with lenders across the fintech ecosystem — from startups to scaled portfolios — and we see many people making the...

Brandon Homuth
Jun 16
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