Ep. 22: Can a Credit Score Be Compassionate?

Can a credit score be compassionate? What if lenders could see a climate shock coming—and adjust your repayment plan before it hits? In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we sit down with Puneet Gupta, CEO of Kaleidofin, to talk about a breakthrough in credit scoring that blends cutting-edge machine learning with human-centered design. Through a recent collaboration with Women’s World Banking, Kaleidofin tested an innovative model that uses climate disaster data to predict repayment risk—leveraging AI to anticipate financial stress before it becomes unmanageable. The goal? Not just to protect lenders, but to shield women borrowers from over-indebtedness before it starts. We explore how this new approach could allow financial service providers to pause or adjust repayment plans in anticipation of shocks, rather than reacting after the damage is done. If the future of finance is digital, this episode proves it can also be deeply empathetic.