In anticipation of FICO World 2016, FICO principal consultant Julia Wooding will host the opening segment of a webinar series where the company will delve into recent advances in credit scoring.
Wooding plans to discuss the latest updates associated with FICO Score 9, FICO Score XD and FICO Score Open Access during a free webinar slated to start at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Wooding has been with FICO since 1993 and works with larger finance companies in the U.S. and Canada to help them understand, use and evaluate FICO Score solutions.
Here are some of the points Wooding intends to cover:
— FICO 9 Score: How is FICO 9 Score different from previous versions? What have lenders found when evaluating, testing and validating FICO 9 Score? What trends are we seeing in the use of FICO 9 score among diversified, P2P, subprime and other alternative lenders?
— FICO Score XD: FICO’s new score can enable lenders to engage more than 50 million American consumers who don’t have enough data in their files for a traditional FICO Score. This audience offers the opportunity for tremendous potential growth and risk. How does FICO create a score? Who are the “unscoreables” and how did we approach the challenge of scoring this universe?
— FICO Score Open Access: This program can make FICO Scores available to finance company customers for free has seen tremendous adoption, according to the company. But it’s more than just free credit scores. What are the other components of this program and how do these benefit your customers? What does it take to implement FICO Score Open Access? What feedback are we hearing from lenders who have implemented it?
“We’ll also share information about our Credit Boot Camp at FICO World 2016 and a preview of other sessions in the credit scoring, originations, and other tracks intended to help lenders make better decisions,” FICO officials added.
Finance company executives can register for the free webinar here.
A recent TransUnion survey found that three in four lenders said it is increasingly difficult to find and acquire new customers.
Meanwhile, nearly 75 percent of respondents acknowledged they are challenged by a continued low interest rate environment, which is spurring more competition for a pool of consumers who receive multiple credit offers.
Analysts explained the survey results are in line with TransUnion data that show there were more than 26 million additional auto, credit card and personal loan accounts in 2015 compared to 2014.
Yet, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, at least 45 million U.S. consumers are still not able to access credit because they either have no credit report or have insufficient credit histories.
“Competition for new borrowers has not been this fierce in the lending space since prior to the recession,” said Steve Chaouki, executive vice president and the head of TransUnion's financial services business unit.
“Our survey results and core performance data point to a new lending environment,” Chaouki continued. “Millions of previously unscorable consumers — now scorable by way of alternative data, which is not traditionally found on a credit file — could have access to new loans.
“Importantly, many of these borrowers are expected to be good risks and welcome additions into lender portfolios,” he went on to say.
TransUnion’s survey of 317 lenders, conducted by third-party research firm Versta Research, showed how alternative data may be leveraged to better assess risk and price offerings appropriate both for unbanked, unscored consumers and for traditionally prime borrowers.
According to TransUnion’s survey, which can be downloaded here, 87 percent of lenders say they decline some credit applicants because they cannot be scored. Yet 83 percent of those using alternative data to score credit applicants report seeing tangible benefits.
TransUnion noted that nearly two in three lenders (64 percent) say they have seen tangible benefits within the first year of using alternative data.
The survey also pointed out that three in four survey respondents said they expect alternative data will bring about positive economic changes.
Other key benefits derived from alternative data, according to survey respondents, include:
—66 percent of lenders using alternative data say it is helping them reach more creditworthy consumers in their current markets.
—56 percent of lenders using alternative data say the data has opened up new markets.
—87 percent of lenders using alternative data do so to evaluate thin-file or no-file consumers.
—67 percent use alternative data to evaluate non-prime borrowers.
Last October, TransUnion released CreditVision Link, a score that combines both trended credit bureau data and alternative data sources. TransUnion insisted CreditVision Link can enable finance companies to score up to 95 percent of the U.S. adult population.
The tool also can allow more than 60 million traditional “no-hits” and unscorable records to be scored.
“TransUnion is the first single source of scores with both trended credit and alternative data, and in just the last few months, we have seen immense interest from lenders in reaching consumers who may not have been traditional prospects,” said Mike Mondelli, TransUnion’s senior vice president of alternative data services.
CreditVision Link’s alternative databases include more than 3 billion non-traditional data records collected on more than 260 million adult Americans. The score’s alternative data assets include property, tax and deed records, checking/debit account and payday lending information, among other sources.
Whereas a traditional credit report offers a glimpse of a consumer at a snapshot in time, Mondelli explained trended data assets can leverage an expanded view of credit data with up to 30 months of historical information. These details include information on each loan account, including payment history, such as dollars paid, amount paid versus minimum due and the total amount borrowed over time.
“This is especially important because a traditional credit report may tell you a consumer has $5,000 in credit card debt, but one using trended data will show you whether they have built up or paid down that balance over time,” Mondelli added.
National Credit Center (NCC), a provider of comprehensive solutions and credit data to thousands of dealers to improve the efficiencies surrounding the credit approval process, announced this week it has acquired Las Vegas-based technology firm AimLogic.
Developer of the predictive technology suite LogicTargeting, AimLogic provides dealers with specific information enabling them to connect with potential customers — in their geographic area — that are most likely to purchase a vehicle within the next four to six months.
Jevin Sackett, chief executive officer of NCC parent company Sackett National Holdings (SNH), said the NCC acquisition of AimLogic will further solidify the company's position.
“NCC's acquisition of AimLogic, and the disruptive technology the company has developed, marks a significant step forward in NCC's evolution as an automotive industry leader nationwide," Sackett said.
“The innovative — and proprietary — suite of technological solutions AimLogic will provide to our auto dealership clients is unmatched, and will prove to be a vital tool for dealers seeking to target their sales efforts to the most likely potential customers in their region,” Sackett continued.
AimLogic's proprietary algorithm can mine a multitude of data sources, including social media profiles, online buying habits, and a wide range of public market and search activity. Utilizing this information, the company’s LogicTargeting technology can create “predictive analytics,” resulting in profiles of potential auto clients with the highest propensity to purchase a new vehicle.
“AimLogic’s proprietary technology was specifically designed to meet the needs of automotive dealers looking to zero in their sales efforts on potential customers that are most likely to buy a new vehicle in the near future,” said Scott Biondo, AimLogic’s vice president of product marketing.
“While American auto dealers experienced strong sales last year, the auto industry remains fiercely competitive, and dealers are all too aware that in 2016, traditional sales and marketing methods are both too time-consuming, as well as inefficient,” Biondo continued.
“By contrast, AimLogic utilizes time-saving, state-of-the-art predictive technology designed to both target the most likely potential customers, and drive them towards visiting both dealers' websites as well as showrooms,” he went on to say.
FactorTrust released its latest Underbanked Index this week, showing insight into significant shifts in income, employment and default rate trends over a three-year period within this specific group of consumers.
The Index, which provides a range of data points including demographic, loan behavior, seasonal effects and others, helps shed light on underbanked consumers and highlights national data and trends based on expert analysis from FactorTrust’s database of tens of millions of records.
Some key takeaways from the most recent Underbanked Index, which tracks data from mid-2012 through October of 2015, include:
• Income: Showing a growing diversity in the borrower pool, the average monthly income of loan applicants has trended upward over the three-year period. Steadily growing from $2,817 in June of 2014 to $3,099 in February of 2015, income dipped over the following three months but swung up in October 2015 to an average of $3,053.
• Industry: The retail industry came in at the top for employees applying for loans, with the dining industry close behind.
• Alternative loans: The number of applicants interested in securing alternative loans (including rent-to-own, auto, line-of-credit, installment and short-term loans) from non-traditional lenders steadily increased over the past three years. In the past year alone, data shows these inquiries have increased by 50 percent.
• Short-term loans: Interestingly, the number of applicants seeking to secure short-term loans steadily decreased since January 2015 (back to near 2013 levels), suggesting an improvement in the economy or borrowers moving to other products.
• Delinquency: On average, delinquency rates decreased in 2014 versus 2013, demonstrating a better consumer credit quality and a growing sophistication of lenders’ underwriting processes. While the delinquency rate for 2015 has seen a recent uptick, defaults are still below 2012 rates by more than 20 percent. Delinquency loan dollar amounts have remained flat from August 2012 to September 2015.
• Applicant inquiries by month: Since the regulatory change in 2013, overall inquiries have trended up with a high last December, suggesting a possible holiday need for cash and a subsequent drop in February due to the holiday lull.
FactorTrust chief executive officer Greg Rable reiterated how important it is for finance companies to consider the data that the company’s Underbanked Index gathers.
“Lenders are continually faced with the challenge of how to efficiently manage risk while lending to the underbanked, but knowledge is power,” Rable said.
“Our data and technology tools allow these lenders to service a broader range of consumers than ever before with finance products,” he continued. “A review of this multi-year data offers some critical insights into loan trends that financial institutions, associations, analysts and media can use to better understand the needs of these nearly 50 million consumers.”
Rable closed his assessment of the latest Underbanked Index by maintaining what differentiates it from other possible sources of consumer credit background information.
“There is a big misperception in the marketplace that the ‘big three’ credit reporting agencies capture all the necessary information to accurately score a wide range of consumers. That is simply not true, as our index shows,” Rable said.
“From demographics to loan behavior data, alternative credit bureaus like FactorTrust provide lenders with a more holistic view of underbanked consumers, consumers that the ‘big three’ often miss,” he continued. “This alternative data creates stronger insight and leads to smarter business decisions.
“For example, falling delinquency rates prove that better quality of data can improve loan quality. Additionally, knowing that both age and monthly income are trending upward, lenders can be more confident in loan decisions,” Rable went on to say.
Alternative credit data provider FactorTrust on Tuesday closed on a $42 million investment led by ABS Capital Partners, a late-stage growth company investor, and MissionOG, an early to growth stage investor.
With the investment, FactorTrust insisted the company will accelerate its growth and expand its suite of offerings to enable lenders to drive desired business results in a challenging compliance environment.
Helping to lead that charge is Michael Heller, who joined FactorTrust on Tuesday as president.
Founded nine years ago, FactorTrust provides solutions that utilize rich, proprietary data not available from traditional credit bureaus, and are driven by a strong technology platform and best-in-class predictive analytics.
The company continues to see tremendous demand for its products as they enable lenders to more accurately assess credit risk for non-prime and underbanked consumers, while also providing consumers with the credit options they seek and deserve.
Executives highlighted ABS Capital Partners and MissionOG bring deep industry expertise and understand the increased need for the type of data and scores provided by FactorTrust. After reviewing a number of companies in the alternative data landscape, they selected FactorTrust because of its significant potential for growth and expansion.
Heller, MissionOG adviser and former president and co-founder of Argus Information and Advisory Services-acquired by Verisk Analytics in 2012, will join FactorTrust as the company’s president and will serve on the board.
“FactorTrust has tremendous potential for further growth, including by broadening the industries we serve beyond short-term and installment lenders and by expanding our focus beyond underwriting data services, both of which could be accelerated by acquisitions,” Heller said.
Heller has more than 25 years of leadership experience in providing information services and analytics to the payments, lending and banking industries.
“We are well-positioned to continue making a significant impact on the underbanked industry and are excited to have Michael Heller as President during this new phase of growth,” FactorTrust chief executive officer Greg Rable said.
With the investment, ABS Capital Partners managing general partner, Phil Clough, will join FactorTrust’s board of directors.
“We ultimately chose FactorTrust because we perceived their data and analytics as the most differentiated and useful in the alternative credit space,” Clough said.
“The underbanked industry is constantly evolving, and we felt FactorTrust was innovative and the best equipped to manage and benefit from the rapid rate of change,” he continued.
Gene Lockhart, chairman and managing partner of MissionOG, will also join as FactorTrust’s board chair.
Lockhart has served in a variety of senior positions including president and CEO of MasterCard International, CEO of Midland Bank PLC, president of the Global Retail Bank for Bank of America and chaired or served on the board of numerous companies, including NetSpend, Progressive Finance and Metro Bank.
Lockhart was also chairman of Argus where he and Heller developed the proprietary data sets and charted overseas expansion.
“FactorTrust operates one of the largest proprietary databases in the underbanked industry with a robust dataset, a strong technology platform, and a loyal and growing base of customers,” Lockhart said.
During the past two years, FactorTrust highlighted that it has experienced tremendous growth.
With more than 200 million loan transaction records, the company’s proprietary credit risk and consumer data is also growing at an impressive rate. FactorTrust is adding more than 350,000 new unique consumers per month to the database, while revenues have more than doubled year-over-year.
“Powered by this investment, along with the knowledge and relationships of the entire ABS Capital and MissionOG teams, including Heller and Lockhart, we are in the best position to scale the success of our FactorTrust data and analytics infrastructure to create innovative solutions that meet the industry’s rising needs within the lending landscape,” Rable said.
Dealer Marketing Services, makers of ProMax Unlimited, recently released the first tool in a line of three new consumer credit soft pull products. The first solution is Instant Score, which is fueled through a partnership with Equifax.
ProMax highlighted that Instant Score, the first of three new Equifax-powered credit solutions to be released, can function as a simple plug-in to any page on a dealership’s website. Using Instant Score, visitors to a dealership’s website are able to see their Equifax credit score free of charge.
This simple process only requires consumers to fill out a short form and verify their identity, but does not require the consumer’s Social Security Number.
Upon completing the form and having their identity verified, the consumer sees their credit score, and the dealership receives a high quality authenticated lead.
“The release of Instant Score strengthens our status as an industry leader in automotive dealer soft pull credit products,” ProMax chief technology officer Darian Miller said. “And we are already looking forward to great future offerings powered by Equifax for our dealer customers.”
Following the release of Instant Score, ProMax plans to release two additional soft pull solutions also powered by Equifax: Instant Auto Credit App and Instant Screen. The three products can be deployed by dealers individually or in concert.
Instant Auto Credit App Powered by Equifax will serve as a logical extension to Instant Score. The Instant Auto Credit App can enables a dealership’s website visitors to go a step further and get pre-qualified for an auto loan.
Consumers who wish to be pre-qualified are required to fill out a short form and verify their identity, in exchange for which they can receive an offer that includes credit limit, interest rate and term. The dealership in turn receives a high quality pre-qualified lead.
“Leads are the lifeblood of the auto business and these powerful soft pull tools are the first step in converting anonymous website visitors into auto sales,” ProMax chief operating officer Shane Born said.
“But website visitors aren’t the only consumers that the dealership can benefit from leveraging soft pull technology with,” Born continued. “Some of the most valuable prospects are the ones already under the dealer’s roof: Showroom walk-ins and service lane customers.”
Executives went on to mention Instant Screen powered by Equifax can enable dealers to implement a powerful soft pull tool at the dealership itself.
Customers shopping for a vehicle or in for a service appointment can have a soft pull performed and given a firm offer of credit. Based on established criteria and backed by lender partners, these offers can be made directly to customers at the dealership or delivered via direct mail.
“Our dealership customers highly value sales leads that are sourced from their own websites and engaging prospects in their service lanes,” CEO from ProMax chief executive officer John Palmer said.
“The three credit-based marketing solutions powered by Equifax enable us to use soft pull credit data to validate consumer identities and qualify customers quickly, easily, and with full compliance with applicable laws,” Palmer continued. “This is why we are so excited to offer our dealerships the valuable services of each of these three products.”
To learn more about ProMax Unlimited and Dealer Marketing Services, got to www.ProMaxUnlimited.com.
Executives from 700Credit, a provider of credit reporting, prescreen data and compliance products and services, highlighted that their information now is integrated with DeskManager, AutoManager’s DMS software product.
The companies explained this comprehensive tool is geared to help users manage potential customer credit inquiries while ensuring dealerships are ahead of industry compliance trends.
The system can provide access to all three credit bureaus, all formats, and all score models. All report history is saved in DeskManager, which makes coming back to a potential customer’s credit profile very simple.
“We believe 700Credit will be a great asset to our dealers, and it is a great benefit to them to be able to use this credit reporting module all while still in their DMS,” stated, of AutoManager chief executive officer Kami Tafreshi said.
“700Credit’s user experience is among the best I’ve seen in the credit reporting industry, which is why I such a huge benefit from this partnership for our dealers,” Tafreshi continued.
Another great feature of this integration is the quick screen product, a soft inquiry credit profile which can allow the dealer to prescreen consumers and pull up the potential customers’ credit information without placing a hard inquiry on their credit. Officials indicated this process can allow dealers to quickly identify customers who do or do not pre-qualify for certain vehicles.
“This integration with DeskManager provides dealers critical credit information up front in the sales process,” said Ken Hill, managing director of 700Credit
“Dealers can minimize the number of deals that fall apart in the finance office by aligning the consumer with a car and payment that fits their situation,” Hill continued. “Also, telling a consumer they are pre-approved the minute they walk in the door of a dealership empowers the dealer to sell more cars.”
Hill touched on another part of the integration that might help dealers.
“Another important aspect of this partnership is that DeskManager dealers will now also have insight into how much the consumer is paying for a vehicle, their current interest rate, and remaining balance,” Hill said. “As a consumer, who wouldn’t want to hear they can get that new car they are interested in at a lower payment?”
For more information on 700Credit’s integration with DeskManager or try a demo of the software, www.automanager.com or call (800) 300-2808.
TransUnion made quite a claim about the new solution it rolled out on Thursday, a tool that can combine both time-series credit bureau data and alternative data sources. One of the leaders of TransUnion’s team that spent more than 10 months creating the tool insisted the CreditVision Link risk score can assess the likelihood of a new, non-mortgage account reaching 90 days past due or worse within 12 months after scoring.
The company explained CreditVision Link can allow finance companies to score up to approximately 95 percent of the U.S. adult population because that combination of both traditional credit bureau data and alternative data sources can create a more precise picture of consumer risk and their ability to manage financial commitments.
“If a lender is doing business in the traditional credit score cutoff of 700, what I would say is we’re seeing this score change the risk tier by more than one grade on about 45 percent of the population,” TransUnion’s senior vice president of alternative data services Mike Mondelli told SubPrime Auto Finance News during a phone interview before the solution launch.
“If you think about that, that’s every impactful,” Mondelli continued. “What that means is you’ve got people moving either up or down along the credit scale. The majority are moving up, but not in every single case if they haven’t been paying other bills. But what you’re seeing is the impact is you would make a different decision almost half the time if you incorporate this score into your credit criteria. Now it wouldn’t necessarily be an approve or decline change, but you would make a different offer to that consumer about half the time.
“To me, that’s pretty telling. It’s going to impact a big percentage of the applicants that are being scored with this score,” he went on to say.
The combination of the data within CreditVision Link was designed to allow users to score with far more precision. Many current customers and applicants of financial institutions may be assessed as lower credit risks, receive more beneficial pricing or possibly switch from a decline to an approval when this score is applied.
Through recent testing of the solution by a major auto finance company, TransUnion identified up to 24 percent more approvals for the institution. Due to the lender’s increased booking rates, the lender could potentially have a 5.7-percent to 11.5-percent increase to its portfolio size.
Additionally, financial institutions can now lend to emerging credit populations with greater insight. TransUnion acknowledged these groups are often denied by finance companies or subject to less favorable lending terms because they don’t have sufficient data on their credit files. In fact, more than 60 million traditional “no-hits” and unscorable records can be scored using CreditVision Link.
“Nearly six in 10 Americans are struggling financially, according to recent CFSI research. Knowing this, it is more important than ever to deliver innovative solutions such as CreditVision Link that increase lender confidence and consumer access to quality financial services,” Mondelli said.
“Whether top-tier banks, community institutions, insurance carriers or specialty lenders, our customers continue to look for better ways to serve the many millions of Americans seeking a firmer financial foothold,” he continued. “We are proud of a distinguished record that combines both innovation and speed to market, and ultimately leads to better outcomes for our customers and consumers alike.”
Beyond the necessary back-end database infrastructure, Mondelli also mentioned tool builders made sure CreditVision Link is compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. As a result, Mondelli emphasized both TransUnion as well as finance companies of all sizes now can have a compliant solution that can meet the demands of state and federal regulators as well as the possibility of consumers raising questions about how the score was determined.
The scores leverage both time-series data and alternative databases of more than 3 billion non-traditional data records collected on over 260 million adult Americans. CreditVision Link’s alternative data assets include property, tax and deed records, checking/debit account and payday lending information among other sources.
TransUnion pointed out these alternative data sources have proven to accurately score more than 90 percent of applicants who otherwise would be returned as no-hit or thin-file by traditional models. This lift was based on 20 validations already performed by TransUnion with some of the nation’s leading lending institutions.
Time-series data assets leverage an expanded view of credit data on each consumer that includes up to 30 months of historical information on each loan account, including payment history, such as dollars paid, and amount paid versus minimum due. It also includes the total amount borrowed over time.
As of now, the solution doesn’t have the capability of integrating rental or utility payment performance into the score, but Mondelli pledged that TransUnion is working toward that goal since the company already had a rental market solution.
“There’s just some challenges in terms of getting enough of that data to make it meaningful. Both the utilities and the rental screening agencies are pretty fragmented from a market perspective,” Mondelli said.
“Getting enough records, say 20 million or 30 million, is pretty difficult. You’re left with a lot of gaps. We don’t have that data in here yet, but we’re working to aggregate it to scale,” he continued. “Once we can do that and manage it correctly and transparently if the consumers wants to dispute it if there’s a difference of opinion we will incorporate it.
“What I think we’ve done is built a terrific first foundation that’s leaps and bounds above what’s in the marketplace now,” Mondelli went on to say. “It gives us a starting point to bring in other data that’s meaningful over time to continue to complement the traditional credit bureau data and give lenders more transparency and accuracy with which they should make decisions.
TransUnion is in various stages of testing CreditVision Link with a diverse set of customers that includes several large financial, auto and consumer lending institutions. Early validation results indicate that incorporating CreditVision Link in an underwriting strategy significantly outperforms traditional risk scores and adds considerable lift to both risk assessment and universe expansion strategies.
“TransUnion is the first single source of scores utilizing both credit and alternative data, which makes it easier for lenders to accurately evaluate the risk associated with all consumers,” Mondelli said. “The combined data assets are especially valuable for lenders to better assess similarly-scored customers as the additional information will help determine which consumers may be better risks than others.
“We’re very excited for a variety of reasons,” he continued. “We think we’ve got a terrific solution to go in and talk with our clients about and they’re going to be extremely pleased when they test it. We see the impact that we can have on these consumers is profound in terms of getting access to credit to a significant percentage of that 60 million of that previously unscored population and moving about 20 million of those consumers from a non-prime to a prime status. That’s rewarding.
“I would say we’re definitely excited about bring a terrific tool to our clients. But we’re equally if not more so excited about the impact we’re going to have on the economy and frankly for underserved consumers going forward,” Mondelli added.
For more information about TransUnion’s alternative data solutions, visit http://e.transunion.com/altdata.
CreditMiner announced that it has acquired full global reseller status with all three major credit bureaus, allowing for what the service provider called a “seamless” transition from a soft bureau transaction to a full application within its software platform.
Ahead of CreditMiner’s full launch of the BASIS₂ platform, officials highlighted that this development means that dealers now have a single credit software solution to execute all of their credit based inquiries. The company insisted dealers can avoid the need for additional logins, or having to deal with multiple billing and other sources to obtain the data they need to complete a vehicle transaction.
“The acquisition of this status for CreditMiner truly solidifies our commitment to both the automotive dealers and the retail space we operate in,” CreditMiner general manager Don O’Neill said. “In many situations, the bureau’s released a multi-year freeze for the addition of new re-sellers, which I feel speaks volume to our organization, as well as our commitment to compliance and technology.”
As a re-seller for all three major bureaus, CreditMiner can now offer the full suite of available Fair Credit Reporting Act regulated and Non-FCRA regulated data from the bureaus. The company pointed out this component means a dealer can now have one relationship for all bureau products, rather than the current model of introducing yet another vendor/service provider into the relationship.
“I speak to dealers every day, more often than not, they can’t tell what they are being charged for credit and compliance data, yet alone who is providing it,” O’Neill said. “With this addition to our solution, we now allow the dealer to have full access to the credit and compliance data they need, without having to utilize multiple logins and multiple billing.
“CreditMiner provides dealers with the opportunity to hold a single vendor accountable for service and pricing, as well as the ability to elevate their product and service offering,” he added.
CreditMiner has timed this release to support the full launch of its patent pending BASIS₂ platform. This solution can allow dealers to take a customer from online or in showroom pre-screen, all the way to deal funding, without collecting a social security number or DOB.
The company stressed its F&I and sales solution can provide a completely transparent finance transaction. It can allow consumers to immediately see which banks in the dealers’ indirect lending portfolio desire to provide finance options to the consumer.
With real-time finance company pre-qualification decisioning, BASIS₂ can enable dealers to add applicable mark-ups, while still removing the finance guesswork for consumers.
“Our goal has always been to enable dealers to complete a vehicle transaction online. We are confident that this tool brings dealers to the point of consummation,” O’Neill said.
“With the addition of full spectrum offering as a reseller, we now allow the dealer to do it efficiently, cost effectively, and with cutting-edge technology that cannot be duplicated,” he went on to say.
CreditMiner will be demonstrating its full suite of products and services at the upcoming Digital Dealer 19 Conference and Exposition on Oct. 5-7 in Las Vegas.
For more information, visit booth No. 523 at Digital Dealer 19, call (817) 213-7042 or visit www.ecreditminer.com.
When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its monthly consumer complaints snapshot report a little more than a week ago, one of the categories drumming up the most activity was credit reporting. Potential problems with how that metric developed is precisely what the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) attempted to articulate to the CFPB in advance of that snapshot.
CDIA president and chief executive officer Stuart Pratt explained why the organization believes that the monthly complaint reports currently being published using the raw complaint data from the CFPB database “inaccurately reflects” the complaint volume and trends associated with its members, which includes Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Pratt articulated the reasons in a letter to CFPB director Richard Corday, including:
1. Allowing complaints where no dispute was previously submitted to CDIA members
2. Complaints misattributed to CDIA members
3. Complaints submitted by credit repair services not recognized
4. The importance of context
“In many instances, consumers will often misidentify the actual party about which they are complaining due to the multiple parties involved in the ecosystem of credit reporting (and other types of consumer reporting agencies), thus wrongly submitting a complaint against one of our members,” Pratt said.
“We respectfully request that the CFPB postpone the production of additional reports which include individual company data until the CFPB has completed its work through its published request for information focused on determining … best practices for normalizing’ the raw complaint data it makes available via the database so they are easier for the public to use and understand,” he continued.
“To continue to publish raw data at the company level is unfair and does not, to quote the CFPB’s own notice, ‘… provide consumers with timely and understandable information to help enable them to make responsible financial decisions and to enhance market efficiency and transparency,’” Pratt went on to say.
The bureau said it has handled approximately 105,000 credit reporting complaints since it began accepting them in October 2012. The CFPB reported that it saw a 56-percent increase in the number of credit reporting complaints submitted by consumers between June (4,289 complaints) and July (6,969 complaints).
In analyzing the period of May through July, officials noticed complaints increased by 45 percent compared to the prior year.
The entire letter in which Pratt goes into much more details about the reasoning behind the CDIA’s four major concerns can be view here.
