VantageScore Default Risk Index Quarterly Update: Moderation Continues in Lenders' Appetite for Risk

Credit Card and Auto Lenders Slightly More Conservative While Student Lenders Increase Risk


STAMFORD, CT--(Marketwired - May 04, 2017) - VantageScore Solutions, LLC, developer of the VantageScore® credit scoring model, today announced the second quarterly update to its Default Risk Index (DRI) data series. The VantageScore DRI tracks the amount of default risk assumed by lenders in four U.S. consumer-loan categories: mortgage, bankcard, auto loans, and student loans.

The update, which encompasses lender activity for the fourth quarter of 2016, contains interactive infographics and is located at DefaultRiskIndex.com. The full data series also is available for download on the site.

Changes to specific index values are summarized in the following table:

VantageScore Default Risk Index: Update Summary, Q4 2016
Category  Total Originations  Probability of Default (Weighted Avg.)  Default Risk Index  DRI vs. Last Quarter  DRI vs. Same Quarter Last Year
Mortgage  $487.6 B  0.99%  85.4  3.6%  -3.1%
Bankcard  $87.6 B  2.72%  96.8  -3.6%  -0.4%
Auto  $150.5 B  3.94%  89.3  -2.0%  -5.9%
Student  $25.3 B  18.61%  90.0  22.1%  -1.1%

Source: VantageScore Solutions, LLC and TransUnion

The foregoing update reflects several key points:

  • New card and auto loans showed marginally more conservative risk profiles than the previous quarter, while mortgage loans showed the opposite trend.
  • Student loans were once again the outlier, where the seasonal pattern continued to bring low volumes and higher risk loans in the fourth quarter when compared to the fourth quarters of years past.

About the Default Risk Index

The VantageScore Default Risk Index (DRI) and its website, DefaultRiskIndex.com, permit users to monitor the shifting quarterly risk profiles of loan originations in the mortgage, credit card, auto, and student loan categories. The DRI is derived using credit file data from TransUnion and VantageScore odds charts -- tables furnished to VantageScore users that match values on the 300-850 VantageScore scale range with their corresponding probability of default (PD) values.

The Default Risk Index is a measure of relative changes in risk level, benchmarked against the third quarter of 2013, the first period for which data were compiled. Interactive tools at DefaultRiskIndex.com allow users to view trends for each loan category and freely download the data behind the charts.

The VantageScore Default Risk Index is provided as a free resource to institutional and individual investors, professionals in the securitization field, academics, and all others interested in systemic lending risk. It is updated quarterly, with data reflecting loans issued in the preceding quarter.

VantageScore Solutions and TransUnion developed the DRI to highlight limitations in the traditional ways credit scores are used to evaluate risk for categories or pools of loans. Today's common practices -- using "weighted average credit score" or "distribution by score band" to summarize risk -- are mathematically flawed. Reliance on those metrics can result in a miscalculation regarding the true credit quality of a loan pool as well as obscuring meaningful trends and leading a well-intentioned analyst to the wrong conclusions.

About VantageScore Solutions
Credit scores can impact many aspects of your life, everything from whether you are able to get a loan and how much interest you will have to pay to whether you are able to rent an apartment.

VantageScore Solutions, LLC (www.VantageScore.com) is the independently managed company that owns the intellectual property rights to the VantageScore credit scoring models and is the leader in scoring innovation. Recently introduced VantageScore models score 30-35 million consumers who typically are not scored by conventional models without relaxing standards. VantageScore credit scores are used by lenders, landlords, utility companies, telecom companies, and many others to determine your creditworthiness. By using the VantageScore model, these enterprises have access to many more consumers, and in turn, consumers have greater access to mainstream credit.

While there are many credit scoring models in the industry, the "win-win" for VantageScore is its innovative, highly predictive, patent-protected, tri-bureau scoring methodology that provides lenders and consumers with more consistent credit scores across all three national credit reporting companies. VantageScore is also the model tens of millions of consumers use to monitor their credit behaviors through dozens of websites and lenders who provide their users and customers with their credit scores for free. More than eight billion VantageScore credit scores were used in the 12-month period from July 2015-June 2016 by over 2,400 lenders and other industry participants, including 20 of the top 25 financial institutions -- an increase of nearly 40% over the previous 12-month period.

The company is celebrating its 11th anniversary in 2017.

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Contact Information:

Contact:
Jeff Richardson
VantageScore Solutions
203-363-2170
jeffrichardson@vantagescore.com

The Default Risk Index presents the most accurate way to use credit scores to evaluate and compare pools of loans. The latest quarterly update is available at DefaultRiskIndex.com.