Equifax Portfolio Review

About Equifax India:

Equifax is a credit reporting bureau that evaluates, reports, and maintains consumer credit files. It offers a host of solutions to lenders and allied financial institutions in India and worldwide. The company offers a variety of services for consumers such as credit monitoring, basic and enhanced credit information reports, Identity verification services, credit alerts, etc. The Consumer Bureau was established in India in 2010 and a separate Microfinance Bureau was set up 2011 to meet the regulatory and lending needs of this sector.

Equifax, amongst other credit bureaus, collects details of an individual’s credit history and processes this information into a highly user-friendly and readable format. Member institutions including banks and other lenders are required to report to the credit bureaus every detail of your credit activity - like repayment history, missed or late payments, defaults if any, delinquencies, total credit limit, credit utilization, age and number of credit accounts, applications for loans or credit cards and the corresponding approvals and rejections, among other credit-related details.

Equifax collects and stores credit data about you that is submitted to them by lenders with whom you have had a relationship in the past. This data is then processed and is presented in the form of a comprehensive credit report and a credit score. Credit bureaus typically sell this credit information to lenders who are interested in your credit history.

Banking and financial institutions are faced with constant challenges—from conforming to new government regulations and rules to acquiring and retaining customers in a marketplace that is constantly changing. It is important for lenders to acquire, manage and retain the right consumers for their credit products. Equifax helps lenders understand their customers by offering a varied number of facilities built to offer insight into a potential borrower’s probable credit behaviour.

What does Equifax offer lenders?

Equifax offers a host of solutions and products to lenders. It provides a consolidated and comprehensive depiction of a borrower’s credit behavior across all loan accounts held, including the repayment history/behavior as reported by the lenders. It also provides identification information, address, contact details and other demographic information of the potential borrower as reported by member companies. Lenders are able to take a call on a prospective borrower’s creditworthiness based on the individual’s Credit Information Report. Equifax also provides ID verification services, credit alerts, products related to microfinance credit bureau, prescreening services, and other value added services.

The Equifax Portfolio Review is part of the Consumer Bureau services.

A brief on Equifax Portfolio Review

The Equifax Portfolio Review solution is designed to help lenders capitalize on predictive insight; this helps to assure profit and generate revenue by taking both positive and negative action. This unique product provides added flexibility and customer management.

Features of Equifax Portfolio Review

• This is the only portfolio review product in the market which can be provided in combination with Equifax Alerts. A portfolio review can be run on consumer accounts when an Alert is triggered on those specific accounts.
• More than two hundred traits can be delivered using Equifax Portfolio Review with a unique quality packaging
• he All Attributes Review provides an overall view of the individual's credit profile, including his/her credit, history, credit usage.
• It tracks any delinquencies reported on the customer’s credit file.
• The Credit Card Review comprises of characteristics for credit card trade lines
• The Secured Installment Review comprises of attributes specific to secured installment trade lines
• The Unsecured Installment Review comprises of attributes which are specific to unsecured installment trade lines
• Score Review – Equifax provides an Equifax Risk Score along with a few key traits.

Further explanation—Equifax Risk Score explained

Equifax Risk Score is an enhanced technology which is designed to help predict the likelihood of risk that a consumer would commit defaults or miss payments within the next 12 months of taking out a loan product.

This scoring solution provides lenders with a perspective on the potential customer risk and supports better lending decisions. Lenders are able to make informed credit decisions, help reduce loss due to the possibility of defaults and delinquencies; and are, in general, less exposed to risk than would be otherwise possible. This means an increase in portfolio profitability.

Equifax Risk Score delivers an intuitive and a wide-ranging scoring tool which is backed by the reliability and depth of bureau-specific consumer credit information reports. It enables lenders gain consumer insight that strengthens their business across all facades of the business lifecycle.

The Equifax Risk Score leverages the most recent data from its members to predict the possibility of default. It also scores those who have no prior credit history. For instance, if you happen to be a first-time borrower, you have virtually no credit history for the lender to evaluate your repayment behaviour. When you apply for a loan, the lender typically will first obtain your credit records. Since you don’t have any credit history to start with, it will return as a no-hit. No-hits are those data files that are returned when there is no matching record found on the database for the corresponding enquiry due to insufficient data or the customer being new to credit.

The Equifax Risk Score becomes a potent tool for lenders wanting to assess their customers in the absence of sufficient credit data. It is especially important to verify the repayment abilities of new entrants to the formal banking system and the lending market, and for those whose credit history available is severely limited.

To summarize the main features of this tool:

• It strengthens the quality of the lender’s portfolio
• The Equifax Risk score manages exposure to risk
• Using the product enables more effective collections
• It is developed specifically for the Indian market, using India-specific demographic data, and incorporating local market knowledge
• It is developed using data from major market players
• It can also create scores for no-hits and inquiry-only files.
• It is designed to work with any standard product type
• It has been designed keeping in mind world-class standards.