Equifax has launched Credit Abuse Risk, a new predictive model that leverages FCRA-regulated data to help lenders detect and mitigate first-party fraud risks during lending processes. The solution targets behaviors associated with loan stacking and credit washing, enabling more informed and confident credit decisions while maintaining consumer protections.
Quick Intel
First-party fraud continues to escalate, posing significant challenges for lenders through deceptive application behaviors and credit profile manipulation. Credit Abuse Risk addresses these risks by analyzing real-time application patterns to flag atypical activities that indicate potential fraud.
The model detects loan stacking, where individuals submit numerous credit applications in a short period without intent to repay, and credit washing, involving efforts to dispute and remove legitimate negative information. By surfacing these indicators early in the lending lifecycle, lenders gain the ability to make FCRA-compliant adjustments to terms, reducing exposure to fraudulent losses.
"By focusing on application behavior in real-time, Credit Abuse Risk quickly helps to reduce the potential for fraud and related costs," said Felipe Castillo, Chief Product Officer for U.S. Information Solutions at Equifax. "This supports a more confident lending environment, and helps keep credit available for consumers."
Credit Abuse Risk delivers several core capabilities for lenders. It provides enhanced insights into behavioral signals of unusual credit activity, enables precise decisioning across the fraud lifecycle—from inflated profile creation to abnormal dispute surges—while preserving essential consumer rights to correct errors. The model offers portfolio-wide protection applicable to all credit segments and supplies real-time, regulated intelligence through an FCRA-compliant score and adverse action reason codes.
As a key element of Equifax's layered fraud defense approach, Credit Abuse Risk integrates with Synthetic Identity Risk tools to deliver a holistic assessment of both identity authenticity and underlying repayment risks. This comprehensive strategy empowers financial institutions to strengthen fraud prevention without compromising fair lending practices.
Financial institutions can explore Credit Abuse Risk further or conduct secure, data-driven evaluations using their own historical data to validate performance.
About Equifax Inc.
At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by nearly 15,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.
TechIntelPro empowers B2B technology decision-makers with the latest industry trends, deep insights, leadership perspectives and actionable intelligence to drive both organizational and professional milestones—and thrive on the tech pulse.