Dominican risk models are failing the economy

By Jonathan Joel Mentor | @jonathanjmentor

Dominican finance has a visibility problem.

Half our economy still runs off the books — not for lack of discipline, but for lack of imagination. Our risk models are still grading paperwork while the real economy runs on reliability no one’s measuring.

Through Successment Venture Labs, in collaboration with ZARI Mobility and under the intellectual sponsorship of Casa de Mentor, we built a national diagnostic: The Cost of Obsolete Risk Modeling in the Dominican Republic. It’s not a study. It’s a mirror — showing how outdated credit systems keep inclusion rhetorical and productivity invisible.

The Risk Paradox

Dominican institutions lend to whoever looks stable on paper, not whoever is stable in life.  Only 44% of adults have formal credit, while the remaining 56% — drivers, vendors, freelancers, service operators — are invisible to the financial system that depends on their work.  We’ve confused compliance with character. And that confusion costs the country billions.

Behavior as Collateral

Our mobility, punctuality, and consistency are proof of reliability.  ZARI’s modeling shows that when behavioral signals like travel regularity, safe driving, and repayment discipline are integrated into credit scoring, risk drops, repayment increases, and exclusion declines.

It’s not charity. It’s math. If just 10% of informal workers accessed microloans averaging DOP 50,000, the Dominican economy could mobilize DOP 215 billion (≈ US $3.5 B) in new credit flow — without touching interest rates or subsidy budgets.

A Framework for Sovereignty

The study proposes a National Credit Data Coordination Framework (NCDCF), led by Promipyme with INTRANT, Cree Banreservas, and the Central Bank.   Its purpose: unify financial and behavioral data under a national trust so that reliability, not privilege, determines access to credit.  This isn’t about fintech.   It’s about sovereignty through data. Whoever defines risk defines opportunity.

From Rhetoric to Infrastructure

For policymakers: modernize or stay obsolete.  For the private sector: inclusion isn’t CSR — it’s strategy.  And for innovators: the next phase of Dominican growth won’t be won in boardrooms, but in data rooms.  Inclusion isn’t charity; it’s infrastructure.
Whoever controls the data defines the next Dominican decade.

🔗 Read the full bilingual whitepaper:
The Cost of Obsolete Risk Modeling in the Dominican Republic — (October 2025)

Jonathan Joel Mentor is the CEO of Successment and architect of the Digital Nomad Summit™, scaling startups and challenging institutions to evolve. UN World Summit Award Nominee  & ADOEXPO National Excellence in Exportation Award Winner  www.jonathanjmentor.co | digitalnomadsummit.co