Usage of VantageScore Credit Scores Surges More than 20 percent versus the Previous Year and Over 300 percent over the Past Five Years

VantageScore® Solutions, LLC, the company behind the VantageScore credit scoring models, released today the results of a market study conducted by Oliver Wyman, a global leader in management consulting, which examined usage of VantageScore credit scores by lenders and other market participants.

Oliver Wyman studied usage of VantageScore credit scores in the 12-month period between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018 (consistent with its similar study one year ago) and found that nearly 10.5 billion credit scores were used by over 2,800 unique users. This represents a 20 percent increase in the number of scores used versus last year’s study.

“This year’s study confirms that VantageScore credit scores are used across multiple use cases (e.g., pre-screen, origination/underwriting, portfolio management, consumer disclosure/credit monitoring) and all lender categories (except mortgage originators),” said Peter Carroll, partner at Oliver Wyman. “Specifically, we found that lenders are getting more comfortable with using VantageScore credit scores for underwriting decisions, as confirmed by the 50 percent increase in score use relative to last year’s study. Consumer websites as well as traditional banks are also heavy users of VantageScore credit scores as a way to engage with their customers and/or prospects.”

Additional findings from the study include:

• Among the total number of users, the number of financial institutions that used VantageScore rose eight percent to nearly 2,500, representing usage of approximately 6.4 billion credit scores.
• Among financial institutions, credit card issuers were the largest users of VantageScore credit scores and they accounted for approximately 4.4 billion scores used overall; of which, at least 68 million VantageScore credit scores were used for new card originations. Overall, according to an Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Report, the credit card industry issued approximately 117 million new credit card accounts during the study’s timeframe.*
• Companies that provide consumers with access to VantageScore credit scores accounted for approximately 2.3 billion scores used, nearly double the amount used in the same period last year.

Recent growth in the use of VantageScore credit scores continues a trend that extends back at least five years. Both the number of users and the volume of scores used has increased significantly.

“In the past five years we’ve seen competition flourish. Within that time period, VantageScore credit score usage increased by more than 300 percent and the number of users increased by almost 12 percent. The continued growth in use of VantageScore credit scores and how we’ve changed the credit scoring industry for the better is a testament to our model’s ability to provide a highly predictive credit score to a greater number of consumers,” said Barrett Burns, president & CEO of VantageScore Solutions.

“In turn, this provides lenders with an expanded universe of creditworthy applicants and borrowers – many of whom are underserved and would receive greater access to mainstream credit products. We’re proud to have brought competition to the credit score market and pleased that so many market participants are choosing to use VantageScore in their businesses,” Burns continued.

Oliver Wyman’s study examined usage trends in all consumer categories including credit card, auto lending, mortgage origination, personal loans, and tenant screening. The study showed deep penetration in all markets except the mortgage sector where lenders are required to use outdated, conventional scoring models. Earlier this year Congress passed and the President signed a law to establish competition in the mortgage market for model developers.

“As a result of the new law, we look forward to extending to mortgage lenders and the consumers they serve, the benefits that credit score competition has brought to the other major sectors of the market,” concluded Burns.

The report is available at www.vantagescore.com/marketadoption.

About VantageScore Solutions

Credit scores can impact many aspects of your life, everything from whether you are able to get a loan and how much interest you will have to pay to whether you are able to rent an apartment. At VantageScore, we understand the impact credit scores have and we take that responsibility seriously.

VantageScore Solutions, LLC (www.VantageScore.com) is the independently managed company that owns the intellectual property rights to the VantageScore credit scoring models and is the leader in scoring innovation. The recently introduced VantageScore 4.0 model scores approximately 30 million consumers who typically are not scored by conventional models – without sacrificing predictiveness.

VantageScore credit scores are used by lenders, landlords, utility companies, telecom companies, and many others to determine creditworthiness. By using the VantageScore model, these enterprises have access to many more consumers, and in turn, consumers have greater access to mainstream credit.

While there are many credit scoring models in the industry, the “win-win” for VantageScore is its innovative, highly predictive, patent-protected, tri-bureau scoring methodology that provides lenders and consumers with more consistent credit scores across all three national credit reporting companies.

* The study notes that today’s lenders have sophisticated credit-decisioning engines that often consider a range of inputs, including credit scores from multiple models, in making account opening decisions.

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