The city of New Orleans, LA has some of the most iconic sights and sounds of any American city and a robust travel and entertainment economy. Yet with a total population size of approximately 1.3 million, over 48,000 residents above the age of 18 actually fail to meet the minimum criteria required to be scoreable via traditional credit scoring models. These consumers are often excluded from the financial services marketplace due to factors such as thin or dormant credit files, despite being creditworthy.

According to Inclusion360 Powered by VantageScore™, an interactive tool that sheds light onto geographic sectors about the potential for financial inclusion, about 94% of consumers in New Orleans can be scored by VantageScore 4.0, in comparison to only about 80% by other scoring models.

Expanding the scorable population in New Orleans represents an opportunity for lenders to grow their businesses while expanding access to credit for consumers that have historically been marginalized.

INCLUSION360’s New Orleans Snapshot:

EXPANDED FINANCIAL INCLUSION: In New Orleans, only about 80% of residents are scoreable by traditional models. VantageScore expands the lendable population to 94% — a 14% increase in the number of consumers scoreable versus conventional models.

UNTAPPED LENDABLE POPULATION: Out of a total population size of 1.3 million, about 48,735 New Orleans residents who would be considered Near Prime or above are scoreable by VantageScore and currently excluded by other models.

ACCESS TO UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES: Areas in New Orleans that are most positively impacted by VantageScore adoption are predominantly Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities.

By expanding the scoreable population, VantageScore is helping New Orleans residents access credit while simultaneously creating a corresponding growth opportunity for lenders in the New Orleans area.

VantageScore’s Inclusion360 is a groundbreaking, open access, and interactive analytics platform that uses comprehensive data sets to uncover previously underserved consumers by geographic market. VantageScore is an industry leader in driving financially inclusive credit outcomes for traditionally underserved groups including Black, Hispanic, and Asian consumers.

To experience the Inclusion360 tool and get specific insights by geography, please visit: Inclusion360.

If you’re interested on learning more about Inclusion360 insights on unscored populations throughout the United States, check out our previous post on Miami, FL and Detroit, MI.