More than 70% of Southeast Asian adults remain unbanked or underbanked, representing a $1.5 trillion financial services opportunity, according to analysis by fintech executives and regulators. Traditional credit models cannot assess borrowers with no salary records, no credit bureau history and no formal collateral — not because they are uncreditworthy, but because the data does not exist in forms banks know how to read.

AI-led credit decisioning systems are beginning to close the gap by reading patterns in spending behaviour, payment velocity, account balance trends and device metadata. Grab Finance deployed 22 AI decision workflows across six Southeast Asian countries in under eight months, lifting credit offer eligibility by about 50% for previously ineligible users, according to FICO. The stakes are high: banks that deploy AI-led inclusion responsibly will capture a generation of first-time borrowers, while those that do not risk building the next non-performing loan crisis, Fintech News Singapore reports.