Equifax launches OneScore to help evaluate nearly 8.8M more consumers
In an effort to support what the company called “financially inclusive lending,” Equifax on Monday launched OneScore.
Equifax highlighted OneScore is a new consumer credit scoring model that combines the company’s alternative data insights with the power of the Equifax Cloud to provide U.S. finance companies and service providers with a more comprehensive financial picture of credit seeking consumers.
The company explained OneScore is unique to the industry because it is the first single score to combine traditional credit history with telecommunications, pay TV and utility payment data on more than 191 million consumers, as well as Equifax DataX and Teletrack specialty finance data on 80 million consumers — including payment history from non-traditional banks and finance companies.
Equifax said the results can be potentially increasing credit scores by up to 25 points and the scorable population by more than 20%.
Powered by advanced analytics and machine learning, Equifax said OneScore is able to score an estimated 21% more — or 8.8 million credit seeking consumers — than when compared to traditional scoring models.
In addition, Equifax said approximately 15% more or 6.3 million applicants that are considered subprime, no hit or thin file could be approved for a near prime or prime offer without increasing risk when OneScore is used in combination with a traditional risk score.
“Equifax has invested billions of dollars into unique data, verification insights, fraud reduction tools, powerful modeling techniques and cloud-based technology solutions that empower our customers to bring greater access to financial opportunity to more people in more places,” Equifax CEO Mark Begor said in a news release.
“OneScore is a testament to the power of the Equifax Cloud in driving innovation that can increase the visibility of consumers to help expand access to credit and create new, mainstream financial opportunities,” Begor continued.
While credit reports remain a strong indicator of credit history and past financial reliability, Equifax pointed out that Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliant information that is not included in traditional credit report data has the potential to help responsibly expand consumer access to credit opportunity and support a more inclusive economy.
Equifax indicated the majority of U.S. adults have at least one utility bill or cell phone in their name, making access to utility payment provides a widespread and powerful indicator of past financial reliability.
When combined with additional specialty finance data on more than 80 million credit invisible, unscorable, thin-file and credit rebuilding consumers from DataX and Teletrack, Equifax sees the opportunity to expand access to credit through alternative data insights extends even further.
More than 99% of the tradelines, payments and inquiries captured in DataX and Teletrack do not exist in the traditional credit file, according to Equifax.
“We understand that a single financial opportunity can be a critical step to establishing individual financial health and generational wealth that can change the trajectory and livelihood of families and communities for generations,” said Joy Wilder Lybeer, U.S. Information Solutions (USIS) chief revenue officer and senior vice president of global partnerships at Equifax.
“OneScore is designed to provide lenders and service providers with a more robust financial picture of consumers who are actively seeking new financial services — helping people to showcase payment history that may not have historically been factored into loan decisioning to obtain new financial opportunities or better rates,” Wilder Lybeer went on to say.
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