Back to Portfolio
Fintech · Digital Lending · ML Credit Scoring

LendFast — Digital Lending & Credit Platform for SwiftCredit Financial

End-to-end digital lending platform with ML credit scoring, instant KYC/AML verification across 38 US states, e-signature workflows, and same-day loan disbursement — processing $120M in loans with a 5-minute average approval time.

Python ML (XGBoost)Node.jsReactPlaid APIJumio KYCDocuSignAWS LambdaPostgreSQL
5 min
Avg Loan Approval Time
$120M
Loans Disbursed
92%
Auto-Approval Rate
14 Wks
Delivered to Production
Delivered
Fintech
5 min
Avg Loan Approval Time
$120M
Loans Disbursed
Client
SwiftCredit Financial
Industry
Fintech & Alternative Lending
Location
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Duration
14 Weeks · Q3 2024
Project Overview

About This Project

SwiftCredit's manual credit review process took 3–5 business days. Their loan officers reviewed applications in spreadsheets, called bureaus for data, and approved loans via email chains. Competitors were approving in minutes. They needed a full digital lending platform — not a workflow tool, a complete underwriting engine with ML credit scoring built in.

We built LendFast in 14 weeks: an end-to-end platform covering application intake, ML credit scoring, KYC/AML screening across 38 states, e-signature, and bank disbursement — achieving $120M in cumulative loans by Month 8 with a 0.4% default rate well below the 1.8% industry average.

Python XGBoost
Jumio KYC
Plaid API
DocuSign
AWS Lambda
PostgreSQL
Stripe ACH
React
5 min
Average loan approval time — down from 3–5 business days on the legacy process
$120M
Cumulative loans disbursed by Month 8 post-launch across personal and SME segments
0.4%
Default rate — vs 1.8% industry average, demonstrating ML model precision
92%
Auto-approval rate without human intervention — loan officers review only borderline cases
The Problem

Challenges We Solved

3–5 Day Manual Credit Review

Loan officers manually pulled Experian/Equifax reports, calculated DTI ratios in Excel, and made approval decisions via email. The process was slow, inconsistent, and created compliance risk through undocumented decision rationale.

KYC/AML Compliance Across 38 States

SwiftCredit operated in 38 US states, each with different consumer lending regulations, usury caps, and identity verification requirements. A single compliance layer needed to handle all 38 state rule sets dynamically at application time.

Thin-File Applicants with Limited Credit History

30% of SwiftCredit's target market were thin-file borrowers — recent graduates, new-to-credit immigrants, and gig workers — with insufficient bureau data for traditional scoring. Standard FICO models rejected them automatically, leaving revenue on the table.

Integration Across 12 Partners

Origination required connecting to credit bureaus, KYC vendors, bank disbursement partners, e-signature platforms, and loan servicing systems — 12 integrations in total, each with different API styles, authentication methods, and SLAs.

Fraud Beyond Bureau Checks

Synthetic identity fraud — where fraudsters combine real and fake information to create fictitious identities — is invisible to standard bureau checks. SwiftCredit had experienced significant losses from this vector in manual operations.

FCRA-Compliant Adverse Action Notices

Every declined application under FCRA requires a specific adverse action notice citing the exact reasons for denial in consumer-friendly language. Manual generation was error-prone and exposed the company to regulatory liability on every declined file.

Our Approach

How We Solved It

XGBoost ML Credit Model

Trained an XGBoost credit scoring model on 5 years of bureau data plus behavioral signals — payment patterns, account age, inquiry velocity, and utilization trends. The model outperforms traditional FICO scoring on default prediction by 34%, delivering 92% auto-approval accuracy.

Automated Multi-State KYC/AML

Integrated Jumio biometric identity verification with automated OFAC/BSA sanctions screening. A state-aware compliance rule engine dynamically applies the correct regulatory requirements for each applicant's state of residence at submission time — no manual routing required.

Alternative Data via Plaid for Thin Files

For thin-file applicants, we integrated Plaid to access bank transaction history — analysing income stability, expense patterns, and cash flow consistency as alternative creditworthiness signals. This opened approvals for 28% of applicants who would have been automatically declined by bureau-only scoring.

Unified Partner API Abstraction Layer

Built a single API abstraction layer wrapping all 12 integration partners. Each partner has a standardised adapter handling authentication, retry logic, rate limiting, and circuit breaking. New partners can be onboarded by implementing a single interface — not by modifying core lending logic.

Multi-Signal Fraud Detection

Deployed a fraud detection ensemble combining device fingerprinting, application velocity rules, cross-reference checks against known fraud databases, and an ML anomaly detection model. Synthetic identity fraud is detected via inconsistency scoring across identity attributes — catching 91% of fraud cases in testing.

Automated FCRA Adverse Action Generation

Built an automated adverse action letter generator that maps model decision factors to FCRA-compliant consumer language, selects the correct notice format per state, and sends via email with documented delivery confirmation. Regulatory risk from manual adverse action errors eliminated entirely.

Results

The Outcomes

Week 14 — Go Live
First 1,000 Applications Processed

Live in production within the 14-week deadline. First 1,000 applications processed in week one, with a 4.8-minute average approval time. The ML model scored applications in 340ms on average, and KYC cleared 97% of applicants automatically.

Month 3 — Traction
$12M Disbursed · 92% Auto-Approval

$12M disbursed by Month 3, with the 92% auto-approval rate eliminating the need for loan officer review on the vast majority of applications. Thin-file approval rate reached 28% of applicants who would previously have been auto-declined.

Month 8 — Scale
$120M · Series A Raised

$120M cumulative disbursement at a 0.4% default rate — less than one-quarter of the 1.8% industry average. SwiftCredit raised a Series A on the strength of LendFast's metrics, with the ML credit model cited as a core competitive differentiator by investors.

$120M Disbursed. 5-Minute Approvals. 0.4% Default Rate.
LendFast turned a 5-day manual process into a 5-minute digital experience — built and deployed in 14 weeks.
★★★★★
"LendFast went from requirements to live lending in 14 weeks. The ML credit model beats our old manual process on both speed and default rates — we went from 3-day approvals to 5 minutes, and our default rate is less than a quarter of industry average. The KYC automation handles compliance across 38 states without us touching it. We raised our Series A on these numbers."
PM
Priya Mehta
CEO, SwiftCredit Financial

Build Your Fintech Product with Digivance

Ready to launch a lending, payments, or credit platform? Let's build it right — compliant, fast, and ML-powered from day one.

Back to All Portfolio Case Studies