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Informal businesses may be able to access finance without a formal credit history by showing lenders reliable evidence of how the business operates: sales, expenses, orders, invoices, inventory and incoming payments. Some providers also assess digital transaction records, platform activity or other alternative data. These records can make a business easier to assess, but they do not guarantee approval; eligibility and available products depend on the country and lender.
What can a lender assess if there is no credit file?
A credit history is one possible source of underwriting information, not the only one. A lender may be able to evaluate evidence of business activity, including regular sales and expense records, supplier orders, invoices, inventory changes and payments received. Keep records consistent over time and, where possible, in a form that can be checked against statements or receipts.
CGAP’s March 2024 review describes two Indian fintech case studies in which transactional data had predictive power similar to credit history; combining transactional data and credit history could improve predictions. Those findings concern particular case studies, not every lender or market. They show why operational records may help a lender assess a business, not that any specific record will qualify an applicant.
Records to organize
- Daily or weekly sales and business-expense records.
- Invoices, supplier orders and receipts.
- Inventory records that show stock purchases and sales.
- Customer or sales summaries from a platform, if the business uses one.
- Statements or reports showing incoming payments.
A paper ledger can help organize the information if bookkeeping software is unavailable. Ask the lender which documents or records it accepts; a ledger does not replace lender-specific requirements.
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Can digital payments help?
Where practical and safe, receiving payments digitally can create a verifiable transaction trail. Save statements that identify incoming business payments, and ask prospective lenders whether they use transaction data in underwriting and what format or history they require.
A World Bank analysis reported in February 2026 examined nearly 50,000 firms surveyed since 2021 across 101 economies. Firms receiving electronic payments were about 3 percentage points less likely to be fully credit constrained. This is an association in the study, not proof that adopting digital payments will cause an individual business to receive credit.
Where to look for finance
Depending on the country, possible channels include regulated banks, microfinance institutions, digital lenders and embedded finance offered through a business or commerce platform. In one embedded-finance model described by CGAP, a commerce platform shares transactional data for credit scoring while a fintech or finance provider supplies credit. The platform may be an intermediary rather than the lender, so establish who is making the offer and who is responsible for the loan.
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Alternative scoring has also been explored for businesses without standard financial records or collateral. An IFC project disclosure for Côte d’Ivoire describes psychometric scoring for informal and non-scorable micro, small and medium enterprises, alongside local financial institutions and Creditinfo West Africa. The disclosure was last updated on April 18, 2023, and listed an estimated project end date of November 21, 2025; it is an example of an approach, not evidence of a loan currently available to applicants.
Because no country is specified, there is no reliable universal list of providers, eligibility rules, rates or complaint authorities. Contact providers operating in your location and confirm that they are authorized to lend there.
How to prepare and compare offers
- Build a consistent record. Track sales and expenses, and keep invoices, orders, inventory information and payment statements together. Use a paper ledger if needed.
- Ask what evidence the provider accepts. Ask whether it considers business transaction data, how much history it needs, and whether it requires collateral, a guarantor, a minimum time in business or other documents.
- Verify the provider and the offer. Check its licensing or authorization in your country and find out how to make a complaint. If a platform introduced the offer, confirm the identity of the actual lender.
- Compare the full obligation. Check the total amount repayable, fees, repayment dates and term, late-payment consequences, collateral or guarantor conditions, and any data permissions. Compare evidence requirements and licensing as well as price.
- Match repayments to cash flow. Consider whether the schedule fits the business’s actual income, including seasonal or irregular periods. Ask how personal and business data will be collected, stored and shared before agreeing.
Digital credit terms may not always make the full cost clear, and some digital-credit models have caused consumer harm, according to the World Bank’s Digital Finance Inclusion resource. Do not rely on a headline rate alone: ask for the complete repayment amount and all applicable fees in writing before accepting an offer.
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What the global financing-gap figures do—and do not—say
CGAP estimated a US$4.9 trillion financing gap for micro and small enterprises in its March 2024 publication. In June 2025, it described nearly 500 million nano, micro and small enterprises worldwide and a US$5 trillion financing gap. These are global estimates with different dates and scopes; neither figure is a count of informal businesses alone or a measure of the finance available to a particular applicant.
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