VantageScore Solutions Announces Availability of Its ‘Score Education Series’

November 8, 2011

Tools

Three-Part Sequence Answers Common Consumer and Industry Questions

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- VantageScore Solutions, LLC, the company behind the VantageScore® credit scoring model, announced today the availability of a three-part white paper series that addresses and clarifies a number of issues regarding how credit scores are used by lenders.

Available on VantageScore Solution’s recently refreshed website in the research section, the three-part series covers the following topics:

What a three-digit credit score actually means
How lenders use credit scores
How to compare different credit score model ranges

The first paper, “What’s Behind Credit Scores,” explains the relationship between consumer risk and credit scores. The second installment, “An Overview of Ways Lenders Use Credit Scores for Credit Approval,” describes three potential scenarios for lenders to utilize credit scores in their business strategies. And the third paper, “Achieving the Same Risk Interpretation from Different Models with Different Ranges,” discusses three strategies for interpreting risk from credit score models that utilize different ranges.

“We know there are a lot of questions about credit scoring even by those closely tied to the risk management industry,” said Barrett Burns, president and CEO of VantageScore Solutions. “While there are lots of places where one can find information about how to manage personal finances and the factors affecting a credit score, VantageScore took a ‘behind the scenes’ approach and explained what happens with credit scores after they are pulled by a lender from one or more of the national credit reporting companies.”

Recent credit score disclosure rules, which went into effect on July 21, 2011 as a result of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, have exposed consumers to their credit scores much more frequently. It will be newly apparent to many consumers that lenders use multiple credit scoring models with varying score ranges. The educational series focuses on this development and provides readers with a basic understanding of how to interpret a credit score and strategies for how to compare different credit score model ranges.

The VantageScore credit scoring model is used by numerous lenders, making billions of decisions annually, including four of the top five financial institutions, the top five credit card issuers, two of the top five auto lenders, and one of the country’s largest mortgage lenders. Recent media reports disclosed that banking giant Chase adopted VantageScore in January of 2011. Secondary market participants, including Fitch and S&P, also rate securitized loan package issues using the VantageScore model.

About VantageScore Solutions

Stamford, Conn.-based VantageScore Solutions, LLC (www.vantagescore.com) is an independently managed company that holds the intellectual property rights to VantageScore, a new generic scoring model introduced in March 2006. Created by America’s three major credit reporting companies (CRCs) — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — VantageScore’s highly predictive model uses an innovative, patented and patent pending scoring methodology to provide lenders with a more consistent interpretation of consumer credit files across all three major credit reporting companies and the ability to score more people.