BANGKOK, Thailand – Transaction data could help banks do more than assess loan applications. It could also help identify customers facing financial difficulties before they miss repayments, creating opportunities for earlier intervention and better debt management.
Dave Malhotra, CEO of ShakeSphere, and Pete Chemsripong, the company’s COO, joined a flagship session on micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) finance during the 2026 IMF–World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bangkok, where digital transaction data emerged as an increasingly important tool for expanding access to credit.
In Thailand, widespread QR-payment use is giving small businesses a digital financial footprint that lenders can use to better understand their activity and assess creditworthiness. The Bank of Thailand’s “Your Data” initiative could further support this development by enabling people and businesses to share financial information.
For ShakeSphere, the opportunity extends beyond helping lenders decide who qualifies for a loan. Transaction patterns could also help financial institutions recognize when existing customers may be approaching repayment difficulties and offer support before their debts become harder to manage.
The company’s non-performing loan (NPL) hackathons earlier this year highlighted a problem among service workers and delivery riders. Conversations with workers suggested that people who are struggling to meet upcoming payments often do not contact their banks. Instead, they may turn to short-term financial solutions that can worsen their financial position.
Identifying warning signs earlier could give lenders more time to contact customers, discuss suitable repayment arrangements and help prevent temporary financial pressure from developing into longer-term debt problems.
This approach could benefit both borrowers and banks. Customers may receive assistance before falling behind, while lenders could reduce potential defaults and retain customers who might otherwise become trapped in mounting debt.
During the meetings, Dave Malhotra also met with several financial and business leaders involved in discussions on digital finance, lending and economic resilience. They included Kattiya Indaravijaya, CEO of Kasikornbank, who shared insights during the MSME finance panel on how QR payments are creating digital records that can help Thai small businesses demonstrate their financial activity to lenders.
Dave Malhotra also met Kenichi Yamato, president and CEO of Krungsri, one of Thailand’s major financial groups, and David Arana, founder and CEO of Mexican financial technology company Konfio, who has spent more than a decade working to expand small-business credit through data-driven lending. He also met Faisal Islam, economics editor at the BBC, who moderated Thailand’s host-country session, “Building Resilience in a Fragmented World”.
The discussions reflected a growing opportunity for digital finance: using data not only to expand access to credit but also to recognize when borrowers need help. For ShakeSphere, the potential lies in making financial data useful at both ends of the lending process — when a loan is granted and when a customer may need support to repay it.
