On Tuesday, Open Lending Corp. gained its third partnership so far this month, aligning with insurance pricing solution provider Akur8 to complement its proprietary Lenders Protection platform.

The provider of risk analytics solutions for financial institutions highlighted that this partnership leverages Akur8’s ability to produce fast and accurate predictive insurance pricing models. The company said it will build upon Open Lending’s existing risk model, which can analyze 2 million applicant risk profiles and deliver a decision within five seconds or less.

Open Lending said its customers will be empowered to respond more quickly to increasingly dynamic market conditions and safely expand their automotive finance portfolios with competitive pricing and higher-yield opportunities.

“We are thrilled to use our extensive knowledge of the insurance industry, regulatory compliance, and advanced technological solutions to bring fair decisioning processes to the automotive lending field through our work with Open Lending,” Akur8 chief client officer Brune de Linares said in a news release.

“We are committed to applying our background in machine learning transparency and ethical use of data to help automotive lenders serve borrowers with greater confidence, clarity, and efficacy,” de Linares continued.

After landing alignments with Automatic and Credit Snap, Open Lending said this new partnership arrived as vehicle accessibility continues to be an ongoing challenge, especially among near- and non-prime consumers.

About 25% of this cohort are paying more than $600 monthly for a used car they purchased in 2023, up from the 8% who purchased one between 2020 and 2022, according to Open Lending’s 2024 Vehicle Accessibility Report.

For financial institutions to intelligently expand their customer pool to include these reliable individuals while managing risk and increasing return on assets, Open Lending said many are seeking advanced data-driven decisioning to better identify borrower creditworthiness.

“As economic uncertainty persists, we are confident Akur8 will further enhance our ability to provide lenders with the tools and insights necessary to support historically underserved near- and non-prime borrowers,” Open Lending chief revenue officer Matt Roe said in the news release.

“The addition of Akur8’s predictive modeling expertise to our over 20 years of industry experience and AI-powered Lenders Protection solution will allow our customers to address market dynamics faster and more effectively meet the ongoing needs of today’s borrower,” he continued.

“This partnership also furthers our mission to expand vehicle access to more deserving borrowers and, in doing so, help our clients unlock new revenue opportunities,” Roe went on to say.