Experian Debuts Combined Credit and Cash Flow Scoring Model

Credit reporting agency Experian introduced its “Credit + Cashflow Score” offering.

The new model, the first of its kind, combines Experian’s credit, alternative and trended data, and consumer-permissioned banking information into a singular score, according to a Monday (Nov. 10) press release.

Combining Experian’s data with information “about how a consumer is managing their finances through open banking is the future of underwriting,” Scott Brown, group president for financial and marketing services for Experian North America, said in the release.

The model integrates Experian data that includes consumer-permissioned bank account data such as income, balances, card payments, bank fees and loan transactions, as well as trended data, offering a 24-month window into how consumers manage credit over time, per the release.

It also uses “detailed credit account information on more than 220 million U.S. consumers,” along with data from Clarity Services to cover “tens of millions of consumers who use nontraditional financial services and may otherwise lack traditional credit histories,” the release said.

The new offering comes as many cardholders view the credit limit process as “bafflingly opaque,” PYMNTS reported last week.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Credit Limits: Understanding Requests, Denials and the Consumer Experience” found that nearly two-thirds of consumers said they have little or no understanding of how issuers decide whether to OK a credit limit increase. One-third said at least one decision in the past three years seemed unfair, a sentiment that jumped to almost 60% among subprime borrowers.

“That sense of confusion is doing more than bruising feelings,” the report said. “It’s quietly reshaping spending habits, card loyalty and consumers’ willingness to stay with an issuer.”

In other Experian news, Vijay Mehta, the company’s executive vice president and general manager of global solutions and analytics, discussed with PYMNTS last month whether artificial intelligence can make transactions trustworthy.

“AI is starting to redefine the speed, scale and intelligence of how businesses interact and transact,” Mehta said.

“In the payment space, we’re seeing AI move from back-office automation to frontline decisioning where agents can negotiate, validate and execute,” he added.