Salad Money offers a novel approach to lending that does not utilize traditional credit score ratings. Salad Money uses Open Banking Data to securely gather financial data directly from applicants' banks and employs advanced data analytics and affordability checks to evaluate loan eligibility. This approach ensures precision in assessing an individual's ability to meet loan obligations without compromising sensitive login credentials and assesses applicants based on their current financial situation, recognizing that a credit score isn't the sole indicator of creditworthiness.
Salad Money has lent over £50 million since its establishment in 2018 and contributes to a more equitable financial market by collaborating with organizations like the University of Edinburgh and UCL to gain insights into financial precarity in the UK. The majority of Salad Money applicants are key workers. Initially providing loans only to NHS key workers, Salad Money extended its offer to private sector key workers and set the prerequisites to apply for a loan as follows:

• not self-employed,
• have a monthly income of at least £1,400.

The maximum amount allowed for a loan is £1,000 payable in 12 or 18 months.
The dataset contains transactions amounts in GBP for categories of spending created by Salad Money. Additional demographic information on the loan applicants is provided. The spatial granularity is Output Area level.
Researchers interested in the dataset can also request Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) and Middle layer Super Output Areas (MSOA) granularities, where transactions amounts are grouped by geography, day of the transaction, Salad Money transaction category, subcategory and type.