Professor Xiaolan Fu, was approached by the United Nations Development Programme to develop a series of case studies about innovation in big data and mobile credit. One of those case studies funded by the UNDP involves Sesame Credit, part of China’s Alibaba group, which has developed algorithms to develop digital credit scores for customers. These scores have enabled customers from China’s poorest backgrounds, plus graduates or workers starting their careers with limited access to cash deposits, to access a wide range of goods and services through a digital trust-based deposit-exemption scheme, from homes to rent to cycle hire and even clothes and electrical goods.

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