London-based startup consensus credit ratings provider Credit Benchmark has begun its proof-of-concept phase with an undisclosed number of contributing banks, ahead of a full production launch scheduled for early next year.

During the proof-of-concept phase, banks that produce proprietary internal ratings can test how the service will work without going through a lengthy sign-up process, and can be involved in designing how the service will ultimately look.

“We now have data on our servers, and have a large group of banks at various stages of getting involved and setting up the technical connections to contribute data,” says Credit Benchmark chief executive Elly Hardwick. “The proof-of-concept ultimately becomes a demo for the product, what the data will be and how it will look. Our aim is to productise that early in the New Year.”