Equifax Canada Launches New Credit Score to Benefit Lenders and Consumers New to Credit

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 16, 2014) - Equifax Canada has developed a new credit score to assist lenders and the one in five applications from Canadians who currently struggle to obtain credit, auto financing or a mortgage.

Score Complete™ was developed for credit grantors that need to determine whether or not their customers are going to meet their financial obligations. The new score will also make it easier for new Canadians, students and others who are new to credit to establish a credit history.

"Score Complete is the first credit score of its kind that attempts to rate every consumer applicant," said Nader Gorgi, vice president of marketing & strategy at Equifax Canada. "Traditional credit granting methods often are not able to score all consumers simply because they may be new to the country, just heading off to university or perhaps, they're looking to re-establish credit for other reasons.

"It's great for lenders because they score more applications which saves them from going through manual processes. This is great for consumers too, because now many more of them will qualify without having to go back and supply more information."

Using the best data sources and statistical modeling techniques, Score Complete gives a very accurate assessment of a consumer's likelihood of defaulting on payments. The result is calibrated to other traditional industry scores, from 300 to 900, and comes with reason codes and a legend to help interpret an individual's rating.

"Many Canadians do not have a robust enough credit history to rate with traditional scores, which is a huge problem for companies that are interested in doing business with these new customers," adds Gorgi. "Score Complete will reduce the time spent on manual adjudication processes for 20 per cent of applications. It will save companies and consumers time and angst."

Each year, Canada accepts approximately 250,000 new permanent residents.

There are also approximately 2.2 million Canadians between the ages of 15 and 19, a prime age for starting to build their credit history.

About Equifax

Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce information solutions that provide businesses of all sizes and consumers with insight and information they can trust. Equifax organizes and assimilates data on more than 600 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide. The company's significant investments in differentiated data, its expertise in advanced analytics to explore and develop new multi-source data solutions, and its leading-edge proprietary technology enable it to create and deliver unparalleled customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 19 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index. Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. In 2013, Equifax was named a Bloomberg BusinessWeek Top 50 company, was #3 in Fortune's Most Admired list in its category, and was named to InfoWeek 500 as well as the FinTech 100. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.