How Does Missing Consumer Data Hurt Businesses?

Credit and lending risk

Making credit risk decisions has never been more difficult for businesses if they don’t know where to find the right information. Since the spring of 2018, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian have fully discontinued offering liens and judgments data on U.S. consumers. This change occurred as part of the implementation of the National Consumer Assistance Plan, which is the result of a 2015 settlement between these three credit bureaus and 38 states. The lack of liens and judgments intelligence creates a significant decisioning disadvantage for lenders and creditors trying to accurately assess consumer creditworthiness. Often, a lien or judgment can be an early indicator of an applicant’s diminished creditworthiness or other derogatory events, and can help alert lenders to carefully investigate an applicant’s potential credit risk. When liens and judgments information is no longer available, it leaves lenders with an incomplete picture of consumer risk that may expose businesses to costly losses.