Equifax OneScore: Industry-First Innovation Helps Expand Access to Credit and Drives Financially Inclusive Lending Practices

ESTABLISHING A SOLID FINANCIAL FOOTING, gaining access to financial services and building generational financial health are all important factors of helping expand access to credit and financial inclusion. The underlying premise of accessing affordable, mainstream financial services is to help move consumers forward in their pursuit of obtaining greater access to financial opportunities based on what they need and want in life. 

At the same time, consumers’ financial situations today are more complex than ever, and a traditional credit score may not give a true view of a consumer’s complete financial picture. While traditional credit reports remain a strong indicator of credit history and past financial reliability, alternative financial and payment information that is not included in traditional credit reports has the potential to help responsibly expand consumer access to credit and support a more inclusive economy. 

“We understand that a single financial event may be a critical step in establishing individual financial health that can change the trajectory and livelihood of families and communities for generations,” said Joy Wilder Lybeer, U.S. Information Solutions (USIS) Chief Revenue Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Partnerships Equifax. 

With the announcement of its new OneScore consumer credit model, Equifax is combining its leadership in alternative data insights with the power of the Equifax Cloud™ to provide U.S. lenders and service providers with a more comprehensive financial view of consumers that will help individuals live their financial best. 

OneScore is the first offering in the industry to combine traditional credit data with telecommunications, pay TV and utility payment insights on over 191 million consumers, as well as Equifax DataX and Teletrack specialty finance data on 80 million consumers, including payment history from nontraditional banks and lenders. Through these alternative data sources, OneScore delivers a more robust financial picture of consumers who are actively seeking new financial services including credit cards, personal loans and automotive loans.

Powered by advanced analytics and machine learning, OneScore can potentially increase credit scores by up to 25 points and the scorable population by more than 20 percent (8.8 million credit-seeking consumers) when compared to traditional scoring models. In addition, approximately 15 percent more or 6.3 million applicants that are considered subprime, no hit or thin file can be approved when OneScore is used in combination with a traditional risk score.

Since the majority of U.S. adults have at least one utility bill or cell phone in their name, it makes access to this type of payment history a widespread and powerful indicator of past financial reliability. When combined with additional speciality finance data on more than 80 million credit invisible, unscorable, thin-file and credit rebuilding consumers from DataX and Teletrack, the opportunity to expand access to financial and other services through alternative data insights extends even further. 

OneScore is available now to U.S. lenders and service providers. For more information, visit our website.