Amidst a Slow News Cycle, VantageScore 4.0 Emerges

June 28, 2017

Dear Colleague:

Since there hasn’t been much going on in the news over the past several months – let’s call it a little over 100 days – we here at VantageScore decided that it would be a good time to fill the void with the announcement of a new credit scoring model.

We announced VantageScore 4.0 on April 3, and plenty of otherwise undistracted reporters wrote about it and what makes our new model different from other scoring models. Although the new model doesn’t officially go live until the fall, when it does, consumers and financial institutions will find that it truly breaks new ground.

But don’t take my word for it.

Credit.com’s Miles Ma wrote about VantageScore 4.0 in an April 5 article titled, “A New Credit Scoring Model Is On the Way: Here’s What to Expect.” He noted that, “A new credit scoring model — expected to roll out in fall 2017 — aims to more accurately measure credit risk by using more historical data and machine-learning techniques, while culling less reliable information.”

Ma went on to quote our own Sarah Davies, VantageScore’s senior vice president of research, product management and analytics. She spoke about how the new model excludes certain types of public records. “In all likelihood,” she said, “almost all civil judgments will be removed from credit files and a substantial portion of tax liens will be removed from credit files.”

Matt Shultz, writing for U.S. News & World Report, also covered VantageScore 4.0 in his May 8 article, “Here’s What VantageScore’s New Credit-Scoring Formula Means for Your Wallet.” He did a nice job of explaining the true impact of the new score’s use of trended data:

“Say you’re about to apply for a mortgage and have about $5,000 in credit card debt. If you once had $10,000 in debt but have diligently chipped away at it in recent months – paying on time, every time – and gotten that debt down to just $5,000, the scoring formula will likely reward you for your efforts. That downward trajectory for your debt makes you look more responsible and less risky to the formula. On the flip side, the formula won’t take as kindly to that $5,000 in debt if it has instead grown from just $500 in recent months. The formula will view that as a danger sign and may ding your score accordingly.”

“VantageScore 4.0 aims to ensure that lenders can be more, not less, confident in their forecasts.” – Automotive News, Hannah Lutz

Automotive News’ Hannah Lutz helped explain the changes in context of the credit industry as a whole, as well as the particular impact the model will have on auto lending. In her article, “Taking the sting out of less data for credit scores,” she writes, “With changes coming July 1 that limit what consumer information credit bureaus examine and monitor, concerns have grown whether credit scores might become more rosy and less reliable — which in turn might prompt skittish lenders to pull back from auto loans, at least until they become comfortable with the new scores. VantageScore 4.0, the company’s revised scoring model, incorporates those July 1 changes. It aims to ensure that lenders can be more, not less, confident in their forecasts of delinquencies and such.”

There’s more where that came from. Here are a few more stories in the press:

You can also learn more about VantageScore 4.0 here.

Have a VantageScore story, question or comment you’d like to share? Give us a shout on Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks,

Barrett

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