Banks Start Watching Borrowers' Real-Time Location to Determine Credit Quality

MOSCOW, Russian Federation - April 28, 2014 - PRLog -- Russian banks began to use AlterGeo Location Technology when assessing online borrowers' credit quality. This has been announced today at the 8th International Navigation Forum in Moscow.

AlterGeo is the hybrid positioning system which avoids weak points in satellite and other navigation solutions, and allows the precise location to be determined in real time, not only in the open outdoor area, but also in dense urban environments and indoors. Now it provides banks with the instantaneous geographical identification of people applying for a credit loan via the Internet.

"The online retail credit market is growing really fast, but it is increasing risks for banks. Our hybrid technology allows our partners to learn more of their potential borrowers' honesty and reliability in order to reduce risks when working with online credit loans," said Anton Baranchuk, CEO at AlterGeo company which is a member of the Skolkovo Innovation Center.

The technology passed all tests with success, and has been recently introduced into the systems of several large banks in Russia. The company does not disclose the names of its partner banks due to the NDAs.

In addition to its great importance for the banking sector, this case of AlterGeo also shows new opportunities to monetize location systems which have been applied almost only in navigation and other location-based services, as well as implemented as a core solution in web and mobile location-based advertising so far.

“AlterGeo company is one of the examples showing how a small group of people can achieve groundbreaking results by high level of self-organization and orientation at the final result. These are the qualities that are important to conquer not only Russian but also global market,” – said Sergey Shubin, Director for development of IT projects at Skolkovo Foundation. – “AlterGeo technology is already very successful and has a great potential for further development. This is even more obvious because its application areas are not limited by traditional approaches that already exist in the market.”

About AlterGeo

Founded in 2008, AlterGeo is the developer of the global hybrid system for the positioning of electronic devices by WiFi, WiMAX, GSM, LTE, IP addresses and network environment. It is the leader of the location technology market in Russia and the CIS, and a Skolkovo Innovation Center resident. Among AlterGeo's clients are large IT enterprises such as Mail.Ru Group and Badoo, mobile app developers, as well as advertising networks and agencies. The company's current partnerships cover Russia and the CIS, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and several other countries and regions.

In 2013, The Financial Times called AlterGeo one of five "Russia's next tech titans"; the company also won The Europas as the Best Russian Startup and was shortlisted for the Best Transport, Travel or Environmental Startup there. In 2012, AlterGeo was given the Bully Award, named finalist of Red Herring Top 100 Global and included in Informilo's list of Russia's Top 25 Hottest Tech Companies.

About Skolkovo Foundation

The Skolkovo Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in September 2010 by the Russian government with an objective to accelerate transformation of Russia from a resource-intensive to an innovation-based economy. To achieve this objective the Foundation is overseeing the creation of the Skolkovo Innovation Center composed of companies and startups, developing innovative technologies (currently numbering over 1000), a Technopark, the Skolkovo Institute of Technology (Skoltech), a new graduate research University established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Skolkovo city, located near Moscow. Together these entities will establish a vibrant ecosystem of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. 30 world’s most successful corporations, including Boeing, Cisco Systems, EADS, GE, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Siemens, Nokia, Samsung etc. have already recognized the opportunity Skolkovo presents having signed R&D partnership agreements with the Foundation.

Website of AlterGeo: http://platform.altergeo.ru.

Website of Skolkovo Foundation: http://community.sk.ru/news/.

Website of the International Navigation Forum: http://glonass-forum.com.