CHICAGO -

TransUnion is looking to assist finance companies and insurers as millions of consumers continue to request and receive various payment accommodations because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, TransUnion officially launched its CreditVision Acute Relief Suite that’s designed to help finance companies in supporting consumers while still managing risk within their portfolio.

TransUnion indicated data from the CreditVision Acute Relief Suite point to the ever-changing number of consumers in either a forbearance, deferred payment or a natural disaster situation. As of May 31, the number of accounts in such programs totaled 106 million, nearly three times higher than the 35 million accounts observed on April 30.

Accounts in such status included auto financing, credit cards, home equity lines of credit, mortgages, personal loans, retail credit cards and student loans, among other credit products.

Recent TransUnion consumer research found that three in four (74%) consumers who have financial accommodations are extremely or very confident that they understand the terms. However, financially impacted consumers who have received an accommodation are more concerned about paying bills/loans (90%) versus those who have not had an accommodation (60%). These individuals also are closer to being unable to pay bills/loans (4.9 weeks versus 6.4 weeks for those without an accommodation).

TransUnion highlighted the CreditVision Acute Relief Suite features a set of 88 attributes that identify accounts and relationships receiving special accommodations for consumers currently in relief status. TransUnion explained the attributes can allow finance companies and insurers to better understand how consumers and their accounts have been affected — broken out by different credit products, the timing of when they were reported in these statuses and the balances of those accounts.

“Tens of millions of consumers have been impacted by COVID-19 and TransUnion’s CreditVision Acute Relief Suite offers additional insight to create a more complete financial picture,” TransUnion executive vice president of credit risk solutions Curt Miller said in a news release.

“The pandemic is complex, and as each lender-to-consumer arrangement may be different, there is no single, simple indicator of who is affected and who is not,” Miller continued. “By bringing better clarity, the suite helps ensure each person is reliably and safely represented in the marketplace, allowing businesses to transact with confidence and help support their customers.

“As the pandemic evolves, we will stay close to our customers and consumers, and continue to enhance and evolve our solution,” Miller went on to say.

TransUnion went on to mention the suite also includes the CreditVision Acute Relief Risk Score, which uses trended usage and payment data as strong leading indicators of risk. The score can be coupled with other risk scores to help finance companies and insurers protect their customers and portfolios while improving new account underwriting strategies.

The CreditVision Acute Relief Suite is available across TransUnion’s traditional platforms as well as Prama DataHub, an in-market, self-service data extraction analytic tool with archives back to 2000.

Information about the CreditVision Acute Relief Suite can be found here and businesses interested in learning how to navigate the impacts of COVID-19 can gain insights from TransUnion webinars, blogs and more on this website.

Additional resources for consumers looking to protect their credit during the COVID-19 pandemic can be found at transunion.com/covid-19.