Jul 20, 2020

The Shell Game

Jack Alton

BEHAVIORAL ANALYTICS

You remember the shell game? Three shells with a ball under one, spin them around with some sleight of hand and see if your mark can find the ball. Simple enough, right? Several $20 bets later and you realize that even something as simple as finding the ball, a one-out-of-three chance, is next to impossible.

This is what’s been happening to lenders over the last few months as a result of the government’s stimulus package designed to provide relief for affected consumers. While it may have provided temporary relief to consumers, it has made the job of online lenders more difficult than ever when it comes to determining risk factors of applicants.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, ‘Flying Blind Into a Credit Storm’: Widespread Deferrals Mean Banks Can’t Tell Who’s Creditworthy, credit-reporting companies do not have to report deferred payments as late payments. The article reads,

The confusion stems from a provision in the government’s coronavirus stimulus package. The law says lenders that allow borrowers to defer their debt payments can’t report these payments as late to credit-reporting companies. From March 1 through the end of May, Americans deferred debt payments on more than 100 million accounts…”

This destroys one of the foundational resources for lenders trying to sort out credit-worthy applicants from ones committing 1st Party Fraud, during this window of inaccurate and outdated credit data. The article continues:

Lenders that are having a tough time spotting risky loan applicants are approving fewer borrowers for credit cards, auto loans and other consumer debt. They are also hunting for new data sets that could indicate who is in financial trouble and how much they need to set aside to cover soured loans.”

In other words, under which shell is the ball? However, the article points out one clue as to how lenders may find the ball every time. A “new data set that could indicate who is in financial trouble…” A new data set that can reveal the real-time intentions of the applicant – a predictive behavioral signal to dynamically inform appropriate verification measures, without discarding your existing fraud strategy; we can help with that.

Now, imagine being able to look under each shell before choosing the one with the ball underneath. That’s what we help online lenders do. Neuro-ID’s technology scientifically translates in-session behaviors from customer data you already have, to better understand the intent of the applicant and put you ahead of the game.

Want to see what your customer’s behavioral data is telling you? Contact Neuro-ID.