Equifax Launches Game-Changing Solution for the Whole Loan Market

MIAMI, Oct. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Recognizing the evolving needs of today's whole loan secondary market, Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) has responded to customer demand by developing a user-friendly, online solution for investors and lenders. Equifax's new whole loan solution provides up-to-date borrower credit scores and data across all accounts for non-securitized mortgage and home equity loans -- enabling rapid turnaround of this critical data for investors. This unique suite of solutions enables investors and lenders to better predict loan delinquency, default and prepayment and more accurately value and price investments using hundreds of leading indicators of mortgage loan performance and highly accurate risk models.

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Equifax designed this latest innovation as an online platform consisting of three products -- Credit Risk Insight Pre-Bid™, Credit Risk Insight Post-Bid™ and Credit Risk Insight Surveillance™.  Pre-Bid statistically matches anonymous borrower credit information to loan-level data and then appends various leading indicators of loan performance such as updated credit and bankruptcy scores, performance on past mortgages, debt balances, delinquencies and monthly payments. With Pre-Bid investors receive 12 months of anonymous credit history for each loan while investors and lenders using Post-Bid and Surveillance benefit from timely access to current data on each borrower. Investors and lenders have the option of applying this analysis at the loan level as early as pre-bid -- giving them a more complete picture of the collateral health underlying non-securitized mortgage and home equity loans.

"Investors and lenders historically have had limited, up-to-date borrower information on mortgage loans -- until Equifax's post-bid and surveillance solutions. For many investors and lenders, this has created a blindspot when assessing the financial profile of mortgage borrowers and making loan purchase and sale decisions," said Dennis Corkery, vice president, Equifax Capital Markets. "By providing a 360 degree view of borrower financial health, Credit Risk Insight Whole Loan equips financial institutions with the insight they need to value residential whole loans based on an asset's complete risk profile."    

The launch of this Equifax solution is well aligned with the changing requirements of today's lending community and investment markets. According to the Federal Reserve Board, U.S. commercial banks  reached a record high of $1.48 trillion in residential whole loan assets at the beginning of Q2 2011. Given this trend, investors, lenders, mortgage insurers and servicers need a holistic solution like Equifax's latest offering that enables them to:

• Better understand borrower credit health trends on a loan and pool basis
• Improve valuation and pricing of loans and pools of loans
• Differentiate between healthy and unhealthy loans and pools
• Analyze and benchmark borrower behavior trends by market segment

Equipped with an extensive array of unique data variables, Pre-Bid, Post-Bid and Surveillance provide seamless access to a number of score options.  With all of these solutions, investors, lenders and mortgage insurers can select Equifax's Personal Income Model™ (PIM), the FICO® credit score and the FICO Mortgage Industry Option known as the BEACON® Mortgage Score. The solution also leverages VantageScore®, a consumer credit scoring model developed by Equifax and the other major credit reporting companies. This suite of solutions is also designed with another powerful tool -- Equifax's Enhanced DTI™. Used in conjunction with a credit risk score, Enhanced DTI provides an expanded view of a borrower's total debt and income to help financial institutions better predict payment behavior, refine risk-based pricing and improve loss mitigation strategies.

Equifax's whole loan solution is the newest addition to its portfolio of capital markets solutions that empowers investors and lenders to make buy/sell decisions with the most up-to-date borrower and property value information available. ABS Credit Risk Insight Direct™ was the industry's first solution to enable investors to link mortgage loan-level data on the entire universe of non-agency mortgage securities to up-to-date anonymous borrower credit data. For more information about Equifax Capital Markets, visit www.equifax.com/capitalmarkets.          

About Equifax

Equifax is a global leader in consumer and commercial information solutions, providing businesses of all sizes and consumers with information they can trust. We organize and assimilate data on more than 500 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide, and use advanced analytics and proprietary technology to create and deliver customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates in four continents and 15 countries, is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index.  Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EFX. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.

SOURCE Equifax