Profile-led
The customer's financial profile remains relevant regardless of the trust route.
Trust-based routes
Relationship context can help. Your own capacity still decides.
Community and employer relationships can strengthen verification or support a specific credit route. They do not erase affordability, create an unlimited limit or guarantee a loan-level approval.
CustomerProfile + affordability
CommunityVerified relationship
EmployerVerified context
Relationship ≠ approvalTrust context supports a route, not a guaranteed loan.
Limit remains hardThe customer's effective ceiling still applies.
Exposure mattersRelevant guarantee obligations can affect available room.
Community Trust Based
Use verified social trust as context—not as a shortcut around underwriting.
A community relationship can support a Stelo credit route when the relationship is verified and the product rules allow it. The customer remains subject to their own profile, affordability, exposure and effective limit.
1
Verify the relationship. A referral or guarantee should be attributable to a real, eligible relationship rather than treated as an anonymous endorsement.
2
Keep the customer's limit authoritative. Trust does not expand borrowing beyond the effective ceiling produced by the customer's own assessment.
3
Track relevant guarantee exposure. Where a guarantee creates financial exposure, it can be considered alongside other obligations.
4
Keep the loan decision separate. An eligible trust route can still require a specific loan request to be approved before disbursement.
Community routeContext → eligibility → decision
1RelationshipVerified referral / guarantee context
→2Customer assessmentProfile + affordability + exposure
→3Eligible productStill inside the hard ceiling
Trust can support context. It never substitutes for the customer's own repayment capacity.
Employer routeVerified employment context
Employment relationshipVerify
Income / pay contextAssess
Existing obligationsInclude
ResultAccount-level eligibility remains authoritative
Employer Trust Based
Employment can strengthen verification without becoming automatic approval.
An eligible employer relationship can support verification of employment and income context. Stelo still evaluates the customer's overall repayment capacity and current exposure before making products selectable.
1
Verification, not entitlement. Being employed by a participating or verifiable employer does not itself guarantee credit.
2
Affordability remains central. Verified income is considered alongside recurring expenses, debt and other relevant obligations.
3
Customer-facing quote remains required. The account should show the amount, available term, charges and total repayment obligation before confirmation.
Shared controls
Different route. Same responsible lending discipline.
Trust-based products should remain bounded by the same core protections as the standard catalogue.
Affordability-led
Income is weighed against expenses and obligations rather than read in isolation.
Limit-controlled
No relationship should bypass the effective credit ceiling.
Approval-gated
Eligible products still require a loan-level decision before M-Pesa disbursement.
Relationship privacy
Use only the relationship information the credit route actually needs.
Trust-based credit should not become a reason to expose unrelated personal or financial information to community members, guarantors or employers. The route should use consented, purpose-specific verification and keep broader account information within Stelo's controlled lending system.
Purpose boundaryShare the minimum necessary context
✓ Relationship verification needed for the route
✓ Customer consent and account-controlled decisions
✓ Backend-authoritative credit state
× Unrelated private transaction history exposed to third parties
× A third party independently setting the customer's credit limit
Product catalogue
Return to the full Stelo tier structure.
See Stelo 1K through Stelo 75K, supported term structures and product states.