Veda launches enhanced credit assessment product to help lenders grow their customer base with less risk – Equifax Score Apply®
New Service helps credit providers minimise risk, maximise approval rates and ease transition to comprehensive reporting
Sydney, Australia: Monday, 9 February 2015 – Veda, the leading provider of credit information and analysis in Australia and New Zealand, today announced the launch of Equifax Score Apply®, a new service designed to help lenders better assess the risk profile of individuals applying for a loan. Equifax Score Apply® leverages the new comprehensive credit data Veda can collect on individuals as part of the changes to the Privacy Act last year.
“The Australian credit industry is in the early stages of a major transition, similar to where the New Zealand market was in 2012,” said Veda’s General Manager of Consumer Risk, Angus Luffman.
“While traditional negative data is a good predictor of credit defaults, the comprehensive data we can now collect in Australia allows businesses to see the complete picture of an individual’s credit history including insights into good repayment records.
“Early observations of the changes taking place in New Zealand show credit applicants who would have been declined under negative reporting are starting to be approved under comprehensive reporting and vice versa. Our initial study of the New Zealand market revealed that, at the account level, comprehensive data resulted in a change in lending decisions 20% of the time,” Mr Luffman said.
Australian businesses are now facing the challenge of building systems to make use of this additional consumer intelligence.
As comprehensive data builds up over the coming year, lenders who rely on their own internal risk scoring metrics need to closely review their customers’ supplementary external data that comprehensive information will provide.
Equifax Score Apply® helps ease this burden by providing stable risk scoring models, fully tested with enhanced identity information and comprehensive data from Veda’s unique pilot study. This flexibility supports lenders in the current negative environment while assisting those wishing to transition to comprehensive at their own pace.
“The early insights from New Zealand demonstrate how the superior predictive power of Equifax Score Apply® scoring models can help strengthen lenders credit decisions, reduce risk and benefit consumers by allowing their recent positive credit behaviour to speak louder than any blemishes they may have had in the past,” Mr Luffman said.
Equifax Score Apply® contains not only scoring models but also enhanced data and flexible delivery options. The service combines several features that collectively support a business’ transition to comprehensive data, including:
- Precision Models – Lenders need a trusted source to best segment their risk. Equifax Score Apply® scorecards give businesses the option to further refine their customer base. This creates room for lenders to grow their product line with new credit products and features to target additional customer segments.
- Summarised Data – With more data comes more complexity. The introduction of comprehensive data means the number of variables businesses will have to consider when applying policy rules has grown exponentially. Veda’s new Genesis Data BlockTM summarises all relevant data into easy to consume aggregates allowing for quicker processing and decision making.
- Implementation Testing – How do you service existing customers reliably while testing policy changes? The Equifax Score Apply® multiple score functionality allows businesses to integrate a negative score to power existing systems while simultaneously receiving a second comprehensive score to test new credit management policies and systems.
- Customised Solutions – What distinguishes you from the crowd? The new Equifax Score Apply® scoring models and aggregated data sets can be configured to deliver to custom specifications. This feature allows businesses to surface what is most important to their credit management practices.
To learn more about Equifax Score Apply®, visit http://www.veda.com.au/business/credit-risk-management/Equifax Score-consumer.