An affordability assessment checklist lists what a lender must establish before deciding a borrower can repay without hardship: verified income, essential and committed spending, existing credit, known future changes, a stress margin and signs of vulnerability. With an agent involved, the checklist also marks which items the agent may gather and which a person must decide.
What is the checklist for?
An affordability assessment asks whether this borrower can repay this loan from their own resources, sustainably, without falling behind on other essentials. It is related to, but different from, a creditworthiness assessment, which looks at the risk to the lender. A borrower can be a good credit risk and still be unable to afford a new loan.
The checklist makes the assessment consistent. Every application is checked against the same items, each item has a stated evidence source, and the file shows who did what. With an agent in the process, that last point is the one supervisors will look for first.
When should it be used, and by whom?
Use it on every new consumer credit application and on any request to increase an existing limit. Use it again when a customer in arrears asks for new credit.
An agent can do a great deal of the gathering: reading bank transaction data the customer has consented to share, pulling the credit file, matching declared income to deposits, calculating ratios. That is depth 1 and 2 work. The decision stays with a person. Creditworthiness assessment and credit scoring of natural persons are listed as high-risk in Annex III of the EU AI Act, and decisions based solely on automated processing with significant effects are restricted under GDPR Article 22. The detail is in whether an AI agent can check affordability for a loan.
How do you complete each item?
For each item, record the figure or finding, the evidence source and its provenance, who completed it, and any exception. Declared figures, such as the income a customer typed into a form, should be marked as declared until matched to something signed, such as payroll deposits in bank data. The method is set out in how to check income and affordability evidence with an AI agent.
Where an item cannot be completed, the agent should say so in the file rather than estimate. A gap is information for the underwriter; a guess hides it.
The affordability assessment checklist
| No. | Item | Evidence source | Agent may | Stays with a person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Net monthly income, verified | Bank data, payslips, tax records | Gather, match declared to observed, flag gaps | Accepting unusual income types |
| 2 | Income stability | Twelve months of deposits | Summarise pattern and variance | Judging whether irregular income is reliable |
| 3 | Committed spending | Bank data; credit file | List rent, mortgage, existing credit | None if fully evidenced |
| 4 | Essential living costs | Bank data or a standard cost basis | Calculate both and show the higher | Choosing to depart from the basis |
| 5 | Dependants and household | Application | Record declared figure | Probing inconsistencies |
| 6 | Known future changes | Application; customer conversation | Record what was said | Assessing the effect |
| 7 | Proposed repayment, including at a stressed rate | Product terms | Calculate | None |
| 8 | Residual income after repayment | Items 1 to 7 | Calculate | Deciding if it is enough |
| 9 | Signs of financial difficulty | Bank data; credit file | Flag gambling, returned payments, arrears | Interpreting what they mean |
| 10 | Signs of vulnerability | Conversation; notes | Flag and escalate | Any adjustment to the process |
| 11 | Consistency between sources | All of the above | List every mismatch | Resolving mismatches |
| 12 | Outcome and reasons | Items 1 to 11 | Draft a summary | The decision and its reasons |
A worked sample: a personal loan of 8,000
A hypothetical applicant asks for 8,000 over four years.
| No. | Finding | Completed by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Declared income 2,600; observed payroll deposits 2,450. Marked signed at 2,450 | Agent |
| 3 | Rent 900; car finance 220 | Agent |
| 4 | Observed essentials 780; standard basis 820. Used 820 | Agent |
| 7 | Repayment 210; at stressed rate 235 | Agent |
| 8 | Residual after stressed repayment: 255 | Agent |
| 9 | Two returned direct debits in last six months | Agent flagged |
| 11 | Declared income higher than observed by 150 | Agent flagged |
| 12 | Approved at 6,000 over four years after a call explained the returned debits | Underwriter |
The agent did the arithmetic and found two things a busy underwriter might miss. The underwriter did what the agent should not: spoke to the applicant, weighed an explanation, and reduced the loan.
Where Pryme fits
In Pryme, an affordability agent in a lending team would normally hold depth 1 and 2 for these items, with each figure stamped as declared or signed. The decision is held for a named underwriter. More on what agents may do in lending is in the guide to AI agents in banking.
Questions people ask
Can the agent use a standard cost basis instead of actual spending?
It can calculate both, and should show both. Which one you rely on is a policy choice your credit team makes, and the file should record it.
Is this checklist the same for scam reimbursement assessments?
No. Some lenders reuse the evidence-gathering steps, but the questions are different. The scam reimbursement claim assessment template covers that case.
What should happen when sources disagree?
The agent lists the mismatch and the figure from each source. A person decides which to rely on and records why. The agent should never silently pick one.