GDS Link expands suite of attributes to include indicators of potential COVID-19 related hardships
One of GDS Link flagship offerings is its tri-bureau normalised credit attributes, which enables a lender to immediately have access to credit attributes normalised across the three main bureau agencies. This offering unlocks access to a premium set of credit attributes, enabling a comprehensive view of the credit profile of a client automatically which is typically consumed in policy rules and/or fraud and default models. The 4,000+ attributes cover 23 industry types such as Installment, Credit Card, Mortgages, Auto, Student Loan, etc.
An example of common attributes are “Number of Trades Satisfactory within 6 months”,” Total Monthly Payment on all Tradelines”, “Number of Open Trades not Revolving, Bankcard or Department Store”. Some of the attributes give trended view of the credit profile as well such as “Total Number of 30 to 60 Date Lates within the last 12 (24) Months”, “Number of Trades Reported within 3 (6) months”, “Number Tradelines with Max Delinq of 30 Days Delinq within 12 (24) Months”
Users of the GDS Credit Attributes product can ensure their decision flow is CRA agnostic on the credit bureau, allowing model consistency for primary, secondary, and tertiary pulls and for future-proofing your data costs. Models leveraging GDS attributes can be used with any underlying credit bureau data removing unnecessary dependencies.
Adjusting for the Now Normal: New COVID-19/Natural Disaster Credit Attributes
As organisations continue to adjust to an ever-changing economic landscape, GDS Link has expanded this suite of attributes to include indicators of potential COVID-19 related hardships. These include indicators of recent forbearance, deferment, and or natural disaster. In addition, attributes counting the total number of forbearance and deferment are included. These newly added attributes empower lenders and provide them greater visibility to navigate these uncertain and changing times.
In a recent report (COVID19 Reporting External Display), TU draws a striking picture of the consumer files as it relates to potential COVID19 indicators. These include Natural Disaster with and without deferment, forbearance with and without deferment, deferment only, and payment holiday. In total, they found that as of May 17, there are about 19.8M consumers with at least one potential COVID-19 impact indicator on file (36.5M is student loans are included). Some of these categories have been sharply increasing since February though with some disparities among different industries. For instance, according to the same report, Natural Disaster increased 2,303% since February 29th; a reporting strategy that is dominant for e.g. Mortgages (33%), Unsecured Loans (63%) and Auto (77%). Even though it is still very early to draw final conclusions, the impact of the pandemic on consumers is real and of very large importance.
GDS Link has a unique position as its platform processes millions of decisions monthly for hundreds of different lenders. Through our interactions with our clients, we are firsthand witnessing the impact of the COVID19 reporting flags. One recurring situation for our clients is the drastic shift of DTI calculations towards lower values under the impact of Natural Disaster flags on tradelines. Indeed, it is current practice to exclude such tradelines from DTI calculations which in normal, non-pandemic, times is the right thing to do. However, in the current situation, so many tradelines are affected by these flags that there is a growing portion of applications that see their DTI ratio much lower than it should be considered. This can have potentially dramatic impacts on borrowers by extending credits to individuals already in considerable debts. In one example, we witnessed the DTI ratio drop from 75% down to 15%.
These 84 baseline attributes, for a total of roughly 2,000 attributes once industry types are taken into account, combine different metrics such as “Number of Open Trades”, “Total Balance of Open Trades” with the different potential COVID19 statuses e.g. “Affected by Natural Disaster”, “Forbearance”, “Deferment”, etc and various time horizons, “within 1 month”,” within 3 months”, etc. Some of these attributes contain “Total Balance of Open Trades in Forbearance reported within 3 months”, “Number of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 3 months”, “Number of Open Trades Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 1 month”.
Armed with these new attributes, our clients can better understand the profile of their customers and foreshadow situations where traditional credit risk management strategies are not sufficient.
At GDS Link, we have positioned our platform, tools, and analytics offerings to support lenders during this crisis and adjust for market shifts quickly and efficiently. We can help you not just survive the downturn but thrive through uncertain times.
GDS Link COVID-19/Natural Disaster Attributes
| Number of Open Trades Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 1 month | Number of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 12 months |
| Number of Open Trades Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 3 months | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 1 month |
| Number of Open Trades Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 6 months | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 3 months |
| Number of Open Trades Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 12 months | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 6 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Forbearance reported within 1 month | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 12 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Forbearance reported within 3 months | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 1 month |
| Number of Open Trades in Forbearance reported within 6 months | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 3 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Forbearance reported within 12 months | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 6 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Deferment reported within 1 month | Number of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 12 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Deferment reported within 3 months | Number of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 1 month |
| Number of Open Trades in Deferment reported within 6 months | Number of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 3 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Deferment reported within 12 months | Number of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 6 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 1 month | Number of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 12 months |
| Number of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 3 months | Number of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 1 month |
| Number of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 6 months | Number of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 3 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 3 months | Number of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 6 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 6 months | Number of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 12 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment reported within 6 months | Total Balance of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 12 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment reported within 12 months | Total Balance of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 1 month |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 1 month | Total Balance of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 3 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 3 months | Total Balance of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 6 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 6 months | Total Balance of Open Trades in Partial Payment Agreement reported within 12 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment excluding Student Loans reported within 12 months | Total Balance of Open Trades in Loan Modification reported within 1 month |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 1 month | Total Balance of Open Trades in Loan Modification reported within 3 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 3 months | Total Balance of Open Trades in Loan Modification reported within 6 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 6 months | Total Balance of Open Trades in Loan Modification reported within 12 months |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Affected by Natural Disaster reported within 12 months | Total Monthly Payment on all Trades Reported within 6 Months including Natural Disaster Trades |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 1 month | Total Monthly Payment on all Open Trades Reported within 6 Months including Natural Disaster Trades |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 3 months | Total Monthly Payment on all Tradelines including Natural Disaster Trades |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 6 months | Total Monthly Payment on Installment Trades Reported within 6 Months, EX A, SL, HE including Natural Disaster Trades |
| Total Balance of Open Trades in Deferment and Forbearance reported within 12 months | Total Monthly Payment on Revolving Trades Reported within 6 Months, EXCL HE, B, RR including Natural Disaster Trades |
| Total Balance of Open Trades where Balance > 0 and Monthly Payment is zero or missing reported within 1 month |
