CoreLogic® to Act as Supplemental Consumer Credit Repository to Augment Traditional Credit Reports

SANTA ANA, Calif., Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today announced the introduction of the CoreScore™ Credit Report containing fully decisionable, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliant consumer credit risk information. Delivered in seconds, by CoreLogic Credco®, the CoreScore Credit Report helps lenders mitigate risk by uncovering additional debt obligations, and increase new lending opportunities by identifying previously hidden credit behavior that could improve a consumer's credit profile. With applications across a broad range of lending verticals, the CoreScore Credit Report is designed to provide timely consumer credit information to enhance existing credit bureau reports, helping lenders make more informed lending decisions that can improve overall loan portfolio value and performance.

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Designed to augment the existing consumer credit reporting processes, CoreScore consumer information is instantly merged with traditional credit report data in a single, integrated report only available from CoreLogic. The supplemental data featured in this and future report releases is sourced from the CoreLogic proprietary information databases, the largest and most comprehensive collection of real estate, rental information and public records in the nation. The CoreLogic databases contain nearly 1 billion consumer transaction records covering 99.9 percent of the U.S. population including county, municipal and special tax jurisdictions, residential properties and liens and courthouse records—along with extensive landlord and tenant experience as well as non-traditional lending activity records. The CoreScore Credit Report is powered by the CoreLogic proprietary FCRA-compliant, fully scalable data merge platform that collects, analyzes and organizes this data in seconds.

"The CoreScore Credit Report enhances the traditional credit review process by adding exclusive and more timely supplemental credit information, enabling a more comprehensive view of the consumer for more informed lending decisions," said Tim Grace, senior vice president of Product Management and Analytics for CoreLogic. "While certain supplemental information is provided in isolation by smaller companies, the ability for CoreLogic to aggregate multiple data sources and deliver through convenient access points for lenders and consumers positions CoreLogic as the industry's primary supplemental bureau. Further, as a nationwide consumer reporting agency, we intend to participate on www.annualcreditreport.com, enabling consumers to request copies of the information provided to lenders."  

The aggregation of consumer data by CoreLogic includes consumer property ownership and mortgage obligation records, property legal filings and tax payment status, rental applications and evictions, inquiries and charge-offs from pay-day and online lenders, and consumer-specific bankruptcies, liens, judgments and child support obligations. Data of this kind has not been generally available from traditional credit reporting agencies at the time of historical credit inquiries. Additionally, CoreLogic adds new tradelines and other public record transactions in an average of just 23 days, which can be up to two months sooner than traditional credit report updates.

A preliminary analysis of over a quarter-million traditional credit reports for mortgage applicants demonstrated that one out of every 13 applicants lacked unique consumer credit data that the CoreScore Credit Report provides—information that could significantly impact a borrower's debt-to-income ratio and credit risk score. Of these, 22.6 percent contained open mortgage obligations which were nearly twice as likely to appear for a borrower with no open mortgage tradelines on his or her traditional credit report. Twenty percent of the loans represented by these tradelines were found to be derogatory or delinquent. The analysis also found that CoreScore provides nearly a 10 percent increase in public record data, capturing additional liens, judgments and evictions not reflected in traditional credit reports. And, more than 50 percent of the time this represented the only public record item for the borrower.

"Our analysis yielded some important findings that could provide lenders with critical information that could lead to new lending opportunities," continued Grace. "For example, while a 720 credit score is considered prime, we found that by adding CoreScore credit data to our sample of prime credit reports, three times more public records were found compared to traditional credit reports alone. We also discovered that open mortgages for borrowers in the lower credit score bands were 70 percent more prevalent than for borrowers in the highest credit score band."  

The CoreScore Credit Report is intuitively designed to be delivered and consumed by lenders using the same technology and reporting formats they are currently using with traditional credit reports. Mortgage lenders, for example, can receive CoreScore data with a credit report—like the CoreLogic Credco flagship InstantMerge®—via major lending platforms in an easy-to-read MISMO/XML format, in seconds.

"When making lending decisions, it's imperative to have as much relevant information as possible," stated John Ulzheimer, president of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com and a nationally recognized credit expert. "Imagine an applicant with a second home loan that doesn't currently show on his or her credit reports or an applicant with a home equity line from an institution that does not report its accounts to the three traditional credit bureaus. These conditions could significantly impact the type of loan or loan terms offered to this applicant. Having the data present in a single report would help lenders eliminate uncertainty surrounding debt obligations and the borrower's capacity to repay, and help them make sounder lending decisions."

To ensure users can fully benefit from and easily operationalize the new reporting solution, CoreLogic is bringing to market a decisionable, easy-to-interpret scoring solution. The solution will be designed to capture the predictive benefit of the CoreScore Credit Report's exclusive data combined with traditional credit bureau data and scores to deliver a comprehensive consumer credit risk solution. "We believe that the creation of a new score that considers traditional credit information along with unique CoreLogic data will provide a more predictive model for the lending industry," Grace explained.  

The value of CoreScore extends across a broad range of lending verticals, including mortgage, automotive, credit card, subprime, direct-to-consumer, and others. It will premiere at the Mortgage Bankers Association 98th Annual Convention & Expo in Chicago, Illinois, October 9 – 12, 2011.

About CoreLogic

CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) is a leading provider of consumer, financial and property information, analytics and services to business and government. The company combines public, contributory and proprietary data to develop predictive decision analytics and provide business services that bring dynamic insight and transparency to the markets it serves. CoreLogic has built the largest and most comprehensive U.S. real estate, mortgage application, fraud, and loan performance databases and is a recognized leading provider of mortgage and automotive credit reporting, property tax, valuation, flood determination, and geospatial analytics and services. More than one million users rely on CoreLogic to assess risk, support underwriting, investment and marketing decisions, prevent fraud, and improve business performance in their daily operations. The company, headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., has more than 6,500 employees globally with 2010 revenues of $1.6 billion. For more information visit www.corelogic.com.

CoreLogic, the stylized CoreLogic logo, Credco, CoreScore and InstantMerge are registered trademarks owned by CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  No trademark of CoreLogic shall be used without the express written consent of CoreLogic.

SOURCE CoreLogic