Choices at the Checkout- Credit Gets Canned

With so many choices in life, it is only fitting that consumers must choose their method of payment. Your first reaction might assume that consumers choose credit at the checkout. Data from a TransUnion study reveals otherwise, and in fact, around 8 million consumers have stopped using bank-issued, general purpose credit cards over the past year.

Ezra Becker, Vice President, Research and Consulting-Financial Services at TransUnion, sat down with PYMNTS.com to clue us in on key findings of their consumer spending choice study.

   


Ezra Becker is vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit.  He works cross-functionally in risk management and marketing analytics to develop sophisticated, strategic solutions across the spectrum of the consumer lending business. His expertise lies in consumer credit risk management, acquisition and portfolio management strategy, pricing structures, and consumer profitability and growth dynamics. Becker has published several white papers and journal articles on a wide range of risk management and consumer lending topics, and has participated in industry roundtables and conferences as both an expert panel member and a featured speaker. Becker’s commentary and analyses have been featured in key industry trade publications and national newspapers, and he has appeared widely on national radio and television programs.

Prior to joining TransUnion, Becker was a vice president of Decision Management for Citi Commerce Solutions (CCS), the core private label retail credit card division of Citi Cards, where his group focused on the analysis of acquisition and penetration initiatives, segmentation analysis, store-level employee incentive tests, cardholder retention & loyalty programs, and account-level profit analyses. Before working at CCS, Becker was a vice president of corporate credit risk management in the Strategic Risk Analytics group for Washington Mutual Bank, where his team focused on an array of consumer product analytics. Becker began his career in banking as an assistant vice president of corporate credit risk management at First National Bank of Marin, now known as Credit One Bank, where he developed both statistical credit scoring and financial profitability models for use in target marketing, account acquisition and portfolio management.

Becker earned B.S. degrees in both chemical engineering and mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds an M.S. degree in probability and statistics and an M.B.A. with concentrations in finance and marketing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a member of the American Statistical Association and the Risk Management Association.