the total resources (capital + labor + time) to obtain the full 360 understandnig of a customer's creditworthiness. Lenders often measure Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), how much the institution spends to acquire a customer. Less frequently discussed is the cost of truly understanding a customer.

Credit teams at banks, credit unions, and fintechs have started to move towards context aware decisions. Meaning, a single credit score is often just a small piece of the decision. Context aware credit decisions weigh traditional sources like bank statements, pay stubs, and tax documents alongside other relevant signals that could reveal additional reasons to trust a borrower's creditworthiness.

Equally important to the economics of acquiring customers within a digital lending flow is the cost to fully obtain all of the relevant context needed to make a decision, including the opportunity costs of getting that context wrong.