HOW TRENDED CREDIT DATA HELPS YOU APPROVE MORE LOANS WITHOUT MORE RISK

In the current market, lenders need two capabilities to prosper: Speed and access to data. Cloud computing, near-instantaneous global communications, and mobile access to a mind-boggling array of products and services have created consumer expectations of tap-and-swipe mobile commerce. Speed counts when responding to consumer requests. As more of the world embraces mobile commerce and relies primarily on credit cards for their transactions, they generate magnitudes more payment data that, when analyzed over the course of many months, reveals useful insights into consumer behavior and financial strength. Today, data is the raw material upon which well-reasoned decisions are made.

Modern loan origination solutions give lenders all the processing power and speed needed for rapid responses to loan applications. Paperless mobile loan applications, workflow automation, and decision rules let lenders approve super-prime borrowers instantly, quickly offer several alternative deals for subprime lenders, or auto-decline applications that don’t match credit policies. However, we’ve found that lenders may not be taking advantage of some resources that can help them approve more loans while reducing risk.

Credit Scores Alone Don’t Paint a Complete Picture

For decades credit scores provided by the big three bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—have been the key criteria for lending decisions. Yet as convenient and useful as they are, credit scores provide only a snapshot in time of a consumer’s financial position. The credit card payment history used to calculate a consumer’s credit score provides a more insightful perspective into an individual’s financial behavior. A combination of credit scores and recent credit card payment histories can help lenders approve more loans without higher risk.

Trended Credit Data Increases Lending Opportunities

Each of the major bureaus provides trended credit data services that can be easily integrated into a modern loan origination system. These services provide as many as 30 months of detailed credit payment history, including balances, minimum payment due, actual payments, and amounts past due to help lenders evaluate an applicant’s financial position. Trended credit data helps lenders increase their lending opportunities in a couple of ways.

Do More Than Decline That Subprime Applicant

Evaluating an applicant solely on the basis of credit score could result in lenders declining opportunities that, on closer evaluation, present favorable credit risks. For example, a subprime applicant with a score of 570 might automatically receive an auto-decline, but trended credit data history indicates the applicant actually is improving their financial standing. The payment history shows the applicant has paid off a $6,500 balance during the past two years with each monthly payment larger than the previous payment.  

Using trended credit data, lenders focused on the subprime segment will discover new lending opportunities that would have otherwise been declined. Not only will lenders be able to respond to these opportunities, but they’ll also be able to price for the risk, based on insight obtained from trended credit data.

Capture the Loan With a More Competitive Offer

Trended credit data also helps lenders improve their chances of booking loans by offering deals that more closely mirror applicants’ actual financial strength. An applicant with a credit score of 760 is obviously low risk. It would be easy to offer prime terms for such an applicant. Trended credit data for the applicant indicates they are “transactor” who consistently pays the monthly bill. More importantly, the past 18 months of payment data show that balances are increasing by an average of $750 each month, indicating increasing discretionary income. Rather than offer prime terms, the lender considers this applicant superprime, offers better terms than a prime applicant, and increases the chances of booking the loan in comparison to lenders who rate the applicant as prime.

It’s Easy to Take Advantage of Trended Credit Data

Modern loan origination solutions running in cloud environments like AWS make it easy for lenders to incorporate trended credit data services into their loan decisioning processes. Through pre-integration by the LOS vendor and configuration menus, lenders can easily incorporate trended credit data services from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to help approve more loans while reducing the lending risk. In today’s competitive lending climate, data is the raw material where lenders find opportunity and transform it into profit.