MFTF (Make Finance Work for People)

The Problem

Traditional banking excludes those who need it most—no credit history, irregular income, or geographic isolation. Payday lenders exploit this gap with predatory rates. Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) have mission alignment but lack modern tech infrastructure to scale.

What I Built

A platform enabling community-led financial institutions to offer accessible banking, fair-rate credit, and peer-to-peer lending through modern digital infrastructure while maintaining local ownership and decision-making.

Key Features:

• Digital lending workflows with flexible underwriting (community reputation, non-traditional income verification)
• Group savings and rotating credit associations (ROSCAs) with automated management
• Financial literacy modules integrated into product flows
• Risk pooling across member networks to reduce individual default exposure

Tech Stack

• Next.js + TypeScript frontend
• Supabase for auth and database with row-level security for multi-tenant isolation
• Open Banking APIs for income verification
• Stripe Connect for payment rails

Lessons Learned

Community Trust > Credit Scores: Traditional underwriting excludes functional borrowers. Integrating social reputation (endorsements from trusted community members) reduced default rates below traditional FICO-based lending. Lesson: context-specific risk models outperform one-size-fits-all algorithms.

Regulation Is Product: Financial services compliance isn’t overhead—it’s trust infrastructure. Building FCA registration workflows, audit trails, and compliance reporting as core features (not afterthoughts) enabled community institutions to compete with banks. Lesson: in regulated industries, compliance architecture is competitive advantage.

Local Ownership Matters: Early versions were SaaS (“We’ll run it for you”). Communities wanted self-determination. Pivoting to open-source + local hosting transformed adoption. Lesson: mission-driven sectors value autonomy over convenience.