Omnisient, a consumer intelligence company founded in South Africa, has won the Banking Grand Prix at the 2026 Money20/20 Money Awards for an initiative developed to help banks assess consumers overlooked by traditional credit information.
The winning initiative brought together two major South African banks and a leading national grocery retailer.
By analysing patterns in shopping history, the collaboration helped banks identify potential creditworthiness among consumers with limited or no conventional credit histories.
Approximately 40% of previously credit-invisible consumers assessed were identified as qualifying for credit, according to Omnisient’s award submission.
Omnisient’s entry for the Banking Grad Prix, “Using Grocery Shopping Data as Alternative-Data for Financial Inclusion”, was recognised under Financial Inclusion.
Developed in SA, recognised on a global stage
For consumers who transact largely in cash or have little borrowing history, a conventional credit file may reveal little about their ability to repay a loan. That information gap can prevent banks from recognising otherwise suitable borrowers.
Omnisient’s approach draws on another source of evidence: patterns in everyday grocery shopping. Years of purchase history can reveal consistency in spending, purchasing behaviour and changes over time, adding context to a bank’s assessment of financial capacity and repayment risk.
The company enabled participating banks and the retailer to analyse relevant information without exchanging raw customer data. The resulting intelligence helped banks assess consumers whose financial behaviour was not adequately represented in traditional credit information.
“This is South African innovation developed around a challenge that matters to people’s lives: being excluded from credit because the available information does not tell their full story,” says Jon Jacobson, CEO and co-founder of Omnisient. “Recognition at Money20/20 shows the international relevance of that work. We are now taking the experience we have built with South African banks and retailers into new markets, including the US.”
Bringing retailer intelligence to US banks
The award comes as Omnisient expands its consumer intelligence offering into the US, applying experience developed in South Africa to the needs of US financial institutions.
Its recently launched Basket Signals offering turns years of retailer-permissioned shopping history into intelligence that helps banks understand purchasing power, assess repayment risk and recognise changing customer needs. Applications extend beyond financial inclusion to identifying savings and deposit opportunities and building stronger customer relationships.
“A bank may see that a customer spent $150 at a retailer, but that transaction alone tells it little about the purchases behind it,” says Imran Bhatti, chief revenue officer: North America at Omnisient. “Patterns across years of shopping can add a valuable dimension to customer understanding. We are bringing that experience to U.S. banks to help them make better-informed decisions about lending, growth and how they serve their customers.”
Omnisient handles data matching and analysis, enabling banks to use the resulting intelligence within their existing systems. Personal identifiers are protected before analysis, participating retailers retain control of their underlying data, and raw customer data is not exchanged between banks and retailers.