Why 2025 Broke Traditional Credit Models and What Comes Next

2025 was the year economic change finally outgrew the tools meant to track it. From a labour market that left traditional models behind to the rise of automated fraud, ‘good enough’ is no longer sufficient, writes Artem Lalaiants, CEO and co-founder of RiskSeal. Artem Lalaiants, CEO and co-founder of RiskSeal It has been a year where the pace of economic change finally outpaced the tools meant to track it. Many credit providers reached a point where balancing outdated risk routines with growth targets simply wasn’t sustainable anymore. Here are the critical lessons learned from running an alternative data platform in 2025, and the trends that will determine who sinks or swims in the year ahead. The trends that broke the scoring system 2025 exposed the labour trends that traditional models couldn’t predict. The global labour market continues to move away from traditional full-time roles—a shift that accelerated after the pandemic and never slowed down. This coincided with a wave of white-collar layoffs and slower hiring, pushing many professionals toward freelance, contract, or project-based work. These income patterns are harder for traditional financial systems to recognise and assess. What we have seen is millions of people suddenly showing up as ‘unbanked’ or ‘underbanked’ on paper. Not because they chose to step outside the system, but because the system just doesn’t match how they earn and spend anymore. Gen Z redefines ‘credit history’ Gen Z makes the gap in traditional scoring impossible to ignore. They possess real income but often lack history…

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