Equifax Rolls Out New Service That Predicts If A Business Will Incur Delinquencies

Equifax, the credit scoring company at the center of a data breach that exposed the personal information of 145.5 million consumers, announced news on Tuesday (April 24) of the launch of a blended version of its Commercial Insight Delinquency Score, which predicts the likelihood that a business to incur severe delinquency, charge-off or bankruptcy on financial accounts within the next 12 months.

In a press release, Equifax said the latest addition of this product suite is the first solution to combine consumer credit information with business credit data in the Equifax Commercial Financial Network (CFN).

“Providing our customers with the option of combining consumer data and small business data with the innovative, machine learning-based technology present in the Commercial Insight™ Delinquency Score will redefine the U.S. commercial risk management market,” explained Scott Spencer, SVP and GM for U.S. Commercial Services at Equifax in the press release. “Results from our analyses have demonstrated up to a 19 percent lift in the predictability of risk versus other blended scores, and up to a 33 percent increase in scoreable businesses over non-blended scores. These incredible results will help our customers make more informed decisions and drive the next wave of growth within their businesses.”

Equifax said the Commercial Insight Delinquency Score output is based upon the company’s Equifax CFN database, which includes traditional payment performance and other data such as business owner and identity. It includes about $300 billion in outstanding balances, over 1,400 commercial payment data portfolios, up to five major data categories beyond the traditional credit bureau and trended data, which provides predictive insights into the future financial path of a business, as well as past financial behaviors.

In late March, Equifax announced it had named Mark Begor as its new chief executive officer. In a press release, Equifax said Begor was to start on April 16, coming to Equifax from Warburg Pincus, where he was a managing director and focused on operational improvement across the portfolio of companies that fall in Warburg Pincus’ Industrial and Business Services unit. Begor had been with Warburg Pincus since 2016, following on the heels of a 35-year career with General Electric.

“After conducting a comprehensive search process, the board is extremely pleased to welcome Mark to the Equifax team. He is a highly accomplished executive with a long track record of successful leadership across a variety of global industries relevant to our business, including his nine-year leadership of General Electric’s retail credit card business, now Synchrony Financial, as well as his membership on FICO’s board of directors,” said Mark Feidler, chairman of Equifax’s board. “His proven leadership ability, operational expertise, growth focus, financial acumen, strategic vision and customer orientation make him the right person to lead Equifax into the future.”