Equifax Rolls Out Tool for Improved Targeting of Pre-approved Loan Offers
ATLANTA — Equifax contends that automotive lenders can now
receive unprecedented levels of marketing intelligence to more effectively
prescreen and target prospective consumers for pre-approved offers with its
newest tool rolled out this week — True In-Market Propensity (TIP) Scores.
The company called its TIP Scores an "industry-first tool"
that can accurately identify borrowers.
Equifax insisted TIP Scores can significantly add value to a
lender's portfolio by transforming the way lenders market to borrowers.
Equifax's TIP Scores can help automotive finance companies,
banks, credit unions and dealers successfully identify consumers in the market
to purchase or lease and more effectively tailor their marketing campaigns with
timely and effective offers to prospects.
Leveraging Equifax's wealth of credit file information, TIP
Scores can enables lenders to better market to consumers using pre-determined
identifiers which measure borrowing propensity and delinquency likelihood at
any given time. These markers assign consumers a digitized score, with a higher
number indicating a borrower's increased likelihood to open a new loan and
maintain timely payments in the future.
Officials said Equifax's solution can provide lenders a
comprehensive view of borrowers and limits financial exposure to bad debt.
They went on to say that the auto industry is nearing a full
recovery as Equifax's National Consumer Credit Trends Report indicates auto
balances through September totaled $766 billion, an increase of more than $50
billion from same time a year ago.
The most recent data also showed $243 billion in lending
through July, which reflects the highest amount in five years.
With the influx of consumer activity, Michael Koukounas,
Equifax's senior vice president of analytics, said TIP Scores can provide
lenders an advantage in maximizing the return on their marketing and outreach.
"The auto lending market's performance has been the
strongest lending improvement to date, and is evidence of an increasing
consumer confidence within this specific industry," Koukounas said.
"This has created a necessity to provide lenders the most
cost-effective way to accurately identify and then meet the demand of appropriate
consumers to maintain this success," he added.