VantageScore 2.0 now available to lenders via credit reporting agencies

After three months of marketplace testing, VantageScore 2.0 is now available to all financial institutions through the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. VantageScore Solutions, which created the system, launched its original product VantageScore in March 2006. VantageScore 2.0 is an upgrade. Barrett Burns, chief executive officer of VantageScore Solutions, sat down with HousingWire in November to discuss the enhancements to his firm’s credit scoring valuation system. Burns said VantageScore 2.0 incorporates a better model for evaluating risk based on recent economic factors. “We’ve seen tremendous turmoil in our economy coupled with significant changes in consumer debt management behavior since we launched more than four years ago, and lenders need to equip themselves with a credit score that incorporates those realities,” Burns said then. VantageScore 2.0 was created using data from 45 million credit files and built on a blend of consumer behaviors between two time periods, 2006-2008 and 2007-2009. “This reduces the algorithm’s sensitivity to highly volatile behavior that would be found in a single time frame,” Burns said. Each time frame contributes to 50% of each sample to assess a borrower’s dependability to pay their debts. “It’s always important to note what a credit score can and cannot do, and our model does not predict absolute risk or credit loss nor does it evaluate loan quality,” Burns said. “The purpose of a credit score is to rank-order consumers on the likelihood of becoming 90 days or more past due on a credit obligation within two years from the time that the credit is granted.” Write to Christine Ricciardi. Follow her on Twitter @HWnewbieCR.