Our story

Wink money was founded by James Brodrick, a seasoned Chief Technology Officer working in consumer lending, who had a burning desire to make life more affordable for everybody. 

James has been a key technical lead and innovator for both private and public lenders. He has built relationships across the financial sector with other lenders, brokers, credit bureaus and software providers.

A problem worth solving 

As James' experience grew, he began to see how customers were being treated and traded like a commodity. As businesses entered and exited the market, one thing remained a constant, customers were continuing to receive a poor experience. A combination of technology, policy and culture had resulted in unfair treatment, with some customers becoming over indebted, whilst others struggled to obtain the credit they desperately needed.

A new hope with Open Banking 

In 2017, James started to closely follow the Open Banking standard. This emerging technology was becoming a buzzword within the industry. It looked like there was finally a technology available that would create a fairer experience for consumers.

A challenging technology

Unfortunately, open banking has shown to be a difficult beast to tame. The sheer quantity and complexity of data available has proven challenging for artificial intelligence (AI). This has resulted in AI skimming the cream from the top, leaving many customers drowning in what is left over. Customers with complex income and expenditure patterns have been left the most disadvantaged.

The passion to find a solution

In 2020, James started researching and developing the technology and customer journey required to tip the balance of power in favour of the consumer. James identified that there had to be a mix of both AI and a strong manual review of banking data. Wink Money was born.