NEW ORLEANS -

During last week’s industry festivities in the Big Easy, Equifax rolled out solution enhancements with a trio of other service providers — Fiserv, Digital Matrix Systems and Dominion Dealer Solutions.

First, Equifax and financial services technology solutions Fiserv collaborated on an interface between The Work Number provided by Equifax Workforce Solutions and Fiserv's Automotive Loan Origination System. Together, the companies said the solutions can provide faster and more robust income and employment verifications to customers. 

Refreshed each pay period, Equifax claims The Work Number is the largest database of income and employment information provided directly from employers and includes records from more than 75 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, including an increasing number of medium-to small-sized employers.

“Fiserv has chosen our income and employment verification solution because it provides instant access to data that can help its customers close deals faster,” said Scott Collins, senior vice president Verification Services at Equifax Workforce Solutions. 

“These clients are already using our traditional credit and commercial data and this enhancement will provide a deeper view of a consumer's credit profile and provide a tremendous value to their overall underwriting process,” Collins continued.

Fiserv is one of the industry’s top providers of auto loan origination and servicing systems, completing upwards of 5 million originations on 18 million credit applications on its Automotive Loan Origination System last year alone. The connection to the Equifax database can allow finance companies to secure income and employment data in seconds and help approve applications quicker and limit stipulations.

Charles Sutherland, vice president of product management and strategy within lending solutions at Fiserv, said of the integration, “After surveying the market for a proven partner, it became evident that The Work Number met all of our success criteria.

“Together, these two applications aim to improve the speed and accuracy of consumer originations,” Sutherland continued.

Integration into Digital Matrix Systems

In other company news associated The Work Number, Equifax announced that Digital Matrix Systems (DMS), a leading risk management solution provider, has established connectivity to the credit bureau’s tool to provide income and employment verifications to DMS clients.

Both operations insisted that verifying income and employment can allow finance companies to minimize exposure to fraud.  They continued that leveraging data from third-party sources for proof of income can streamline the overall process, resulting in improved efficiency. 

Access to The Work Number data will be available through Data Access Point by DMS, a connectivity hub that can offers clients flexibility when using both traditional and alternative data sources.

“We continually survey the market and work with our partners to evaluate new data sources for our clients, and the addition of The Work Number will allow us to provide access to a unique and beneficial data set,” said David Graves, DMS executive vice president. 

“DMS and Equifax share a mutual goal — to improve the speed and accuracy of consumer originations,” Graves continued.

Equifax’s Collins added, “Our income and employment verification solution rounds out the DMS offering by enabling instant access to data that can help their clients reach business decisions faster.

“Being in a position to have a more comprehensive view of a consumer's credit profile will help give these lenders greater confidence around credit risk and their customers’ ability to repay,” he went on to say.

Equifax highlights service lane equity mining capability

Furthermore, Equifax also launched availability of PowerLead Offer — a new soft-pull credit-based solution designed for the dealership service lane — that can prescreen customers for potential vehicle financing offers.

John Giamalvo, vice president of dealer services at Equifax, explained that instances where a customer brings a vehicle to the dealership for maintenance or repairs present a unique opportunity to prescreen for additional sales opportunities. Giamalvo noted that PowerLead Offer can enable a service provider to prescreen the customer, either prior to their arrival or on-the-spot, to assess eligibility and terms for a new car firm offer of credit.

When the consumer qualifies, a firm offer of credit can be provided to the customer during the vehicle servicing experience.

“A face-to-face encounter with a customer is a sales conversion opportunity and the introduction of a qualified offer enables the dealership to better maximize every customer touchpoint, even outside the showroom,” Giamalvo said

Dominion Dealer Solutions, a provider of web-based customer relationship management and dealer management system technology, was the first within the industry to adopt PowerLead Offer. The company will leverage the solution as an enhancement to its equity mining platform DealActivator to help increase the unique value it provides to its dealer customers.

“This integration will keep our dealers compliant and their customer’s information secure, while helping to significantly increase the dealers’ equity opportunities in the service lane,” said Alan Andreu, general manager of equity solutions for Dominion Dealer Solutions.

“I am excited that DealActivator can directly offer dealers soft credit pulls with the largest credit provider in the country,” Andreu went on to say.