Conventionally Unscoreable Population Grows to 40 Million Consumers

VantageScore study shows that outdated conventional scoring models lead to an increase in marginalized consumers facing unfair hardships when applying for credit

Total US Population of Newly Scoreable (40 million) Using VantageScore 4.0 (Photo: Business Wire)

STAMFORD, Conn.--()--VantageScore® Solutions, LLC, the company behind the VantageScore credit scoring models, released the results of an analysis that shows that the population of consumers who are conventionally unscoreable (i.e., those that fail to meet the minimum scoring requirements of widely used conventional credit scoring models) has grown from approximately 30-35 million in 2010 to approximately 40 million in 2018.

Through no fault of their own, these consumers would fail to meet the requirements for automated underwriting processes widely used across the consumer lending system and could either be turned down for loans or face potentially unfair pricing and terms.

To perform the analysis, VantageScore used a random, anonymous sample of 15 million consumer credit files obtained from the three nationwide credit bureaus and calculated the proportions of the consumers who would satisfy conventional model scoring requirements or fall into one of the four groups of conventionally unscoreable consumers – new to market, infrequent credit user, rare credit user or no accounts. The proportions were then applied to the overall US adult population based on 2017 US Census figures to estimate the total population of conventionally unscoreable consumers. Further, leveraging the 2017 American Community Survey published by the US Census Bureau, VantageScore estimated the impact on different ethnicities using zip code level data.

The analysis shows that based on the 2010 U.S. Census, the overall population was 309 million, of which 30-35 million were unscoreable when conventional models are used by lenders. These consumers could be scored with the VantageScore model.

As the overall U.S. population has increased, so has the number of consumers who cannot be scored by conventional credit scoring models. According to the latest 2017 U.S. Census, the overall population grew to 326 million and the number of conventionally unscoreable consumers who can now be scored with the VantageScore 4.0 model increased to approximately 40 million.

Overall, the proportion of the adult population that is conventionally unscoreable remains unchanged at close to 16 percent.

The ability to safely, soundly and accurately score these consumers represents an opportunity to make credit markets more accessible to additional consumers who have been historically underserved. Despite advances in data availability, granularity and modeling architecture, which in turn have led to the ability to assess risk on a larger pool of consumers, many credit decisions including almost every single mortgage application continue to rely on models that put these consumers at a disadvantage.

A breakdown of the conventionally unscoreables consumers that can be scored with the VantageScore model includes:

   
“New to Market”  

Young to credit,
emerging borrower

 

Consumers who only have credit accounts that are
less than 6 months in age

“Infrequent” or “Rare”

Credit users

 

Dormant credit use

 

Consumers who haven't had an update/reporting on
their credit files in the past 6 months but have had
updates more than 6 months ago

“No Trades”  

Have only external
collections, public
records and inquiries on
their file

 

Consumers who have no tradelines but are scored
based on the external collections and public records
on their file

 

The breakdown of the conventionally unscoreable population by ethnicity includes:

       
   

2018 Unscoreables
- All Scores

     

2018 Unscoreables
- Scores 620+

 

Total   40 million       10.06 million
Black and Hispanic   12.2 million       2.4 million
Asian/Pacific-Islander   1.6 million       <1 million
White   25.7 million       7 million
Native American   335,000       66,000
 

“Using a model that can accurately score a greater proportion of the adult population in the United States can improve a lender’s bottom line, while at the same time, level the playing field for consumers who have been historically marginalized,” said Barrett Burns, president & CEO of VantageScore Solutions. “The borrowers of today and those entering the phase of their lives where accessing credit is critical aren’t behaving like consumers did a decade ago, and to effectively lend to them requires a new approach to credit scoring.”

Introduced in October of 2017, VantageScore 4.0 uniquely uses machine learning techniques in the development of scorecards for consumers who are conventionally unscoreable. VantageScore 4.0 also leverages trended credit data attributes to drive predictive lift and provide greater accuracy in the assessment of a consumer’s creditworthiness.

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. At VantageScore, we understand the impact credit scores have and we take that responsibility seriously.

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. The recently introduced VantageScore 4.0 model assesses approximately 40 million consumers who typically are not scored by conventional models – without sacrificing predictiveness.

VantageScore credit scores are used by lenders, landlords, utility companies, telecom companies, and many others to determine creditworthiness. A recent study found that nearly 10.5 billion VantageScore credit scores were used by over 2,800 unique users, including more than 2,200 lenders, from July 2017 to June 2018. 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.

Contacts

Jeff Richardson, Vice President and Group Head – Marketing & Communications
VantageScore Solutions
203-363-2170
jeffrichardson@vantagescore.com

Contacts

Jeff Richardson, Vice President and Group Head – Marketing & Communications
VantageScore Solutions
203-363-2170
jeffrichardson@vantagescore.com