As our industry works to improve confidence in construction, partnering with the right professionals is more critical than ever for developers. iCIRT rated developers and builders now represent over half of the residential market by value, putting those whose entire build team is iCIRT rated in a unique position of being able to showcase their trustworthy credentials.
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Equifax, the global data, analytics and technology company, has announced a partnership with leading HR and Payroll software provider Frontier Software. A first in the Australian market, the partnership will enable Frontier Software and its customers to streamline the employment income verification process and mitigate data handling risks in loan applications with automated employment income verification.
Employers need to find ways to meet the shifting expectations of their employees for better work-life balance. Critical to the employee value proposition is creating a humanised employee experience that recognises and respects that work and life experiences are intertwined.
Rebound now hit by Pandemic Second-Wave
For the first time in three years, consumer credit demand has moved out of negative territory. According to the latest Quarterly Consumer Credit Demand Index (June 2021), demand recovered sharply in the June quarter (+29.1%), with applications for credit cards, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), personal loans, auto loans and mortgages all experiencing double-digit growth. A drop in the momentum of recovery is expected in the third quarter, with stay-at-home pandemic orders impacting around 10 million Australians
Q2 2021 figures show double-digit growth in business credit demand, with solid gains across all categories of credit, according to the latest Equifax Quarterly Business Credit Demand Index (June 2021). Sustaining this pace of recovery into the third quarter is now under question as second-wave pandemic lockdowns show signs of dampening credit demand in NSW and Victoria.
Cybersecurity readiness doesn't come easily. Reacting to a security breach is vastly different from being ready to act should a breach occur. Many organisations haven't previously focused on proactively protecting their critical information assets, but change is coming. The increased sophistication of today's threat actors heightens the chances that more organisations will find themselves the unlucky targets of cybercrime.
A potential borrower with no defaults but a poor repayment history applies for a loan with a lender who uses only negative bureau data in their credit decisioning. Other things being equal, their application is likely to be approved. The same borrower applies to a lender with access to Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR) data, only to have their application rejected.
The difference? One lender made their decision based solely on negative-only credit information like defaults, bankruptcies and the number of credit enquiries. The other lender made their decision based on both negative and positive CCR data. This lender could see that the applicant had a history of paying late and had many loans with multiple lenders.
Rejecting a loan applicant because there is not enough information on their credit file to determine their risk can mean giving away a creditworthy customer.
In today's disrupted marketplace, where customer-centricity and growth are crucial, there is a significant benefit to separating the likely good borrowers from the likely bad borrowers among those with limited credit history.
No one wants to continue assessing customer income and expense data manually. Lenders are all too aware of the inefficiency of paperwork-heavy processes, and today's borrower wants a simplified and fast loan application experience.
Business credit demand has returned to the same level it was in the March 2020 pre-pandemic quarter, driven by a bounce-back in asset finance (+8.9%). Business insolvencies have yet to match their March 2020 level (down -36% compared to March last year) but are rising, month on month up by +78% in February and +29.0% in March, according to the latest Equifax Quarterly Business Credit Demand Index (March 2021).
Consumer credit demand continues to decline compared to last year, but the rate of decline is slowing compared to previous quarters. Despite credit cards and personal loan demand remaining soft, auto loans and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) applications continue to recover, according to data from the latest Equifax Quarterly Consumer Credit Demand Index (March 2021). Demand for mortgages grew throughout Australia up +23.5% compared to the March quarter 2020, with every state and territory experiencing growth.
