CRIF works with the Irish Credit Bureau (ICB) to enhance ICB’s credit scoring system

CRIF and ICB announced today the refresh of the ICB’s bespoke credit scoring system, with a new version of the model, the ICB CRIF Score Version IV, to be released by the end of 2017. The ICB CRIF Score has been constantly monitored and updated, since its initial release in 2001, to reflect changing market conditions and the increasing number of lenders who were registering data in the ICB database.

Two major upgrades were released in 2007 and 2012.   This further update marks a new milestone in this process of continuous evolution and fine-tuning. Ensuring that the latest market trends and behavioural patterns captured in the ICB database are properly reflected in the scoring system is paramount, boosting the tool’s predictiveness and maintaining its performance to the highest qualitative standards. A specific version of this new score has been developed using non-consumer portfolios, thereby extending the tool’s applicability to the business segment (entrepreneurs, SMEs).
CRIF and ICB will also work together to ensure a smooth transition to the new version of the score for all financial institutions that already make use of the service, as well as jointly promoting the tool to the rest of the market.
A performing scoring model will deliver an accurate, instant and straightforward assessment of the credit risk associated with applicants which is easily integrated into lending processes. It will contribute to enhanced portfolio quality, better informed and consistent credit decisions and increased automation of lending processes, all key competitive factors in today’s increasingly demanding customer-driven markets.

“Changing digital platforms and increased competition in the consumer finance market is driving the need for more streamlined lending processes to produce decisions as quickly as possible. The users of our service want to make the most out of the  market data contained in our database. The score we have developed together with CRIF is an effective enabler in this regard and we consider it a key element of our offering to lending institutions operating in the Irish market”, said Gerry O’Neill, COO of ICB.
Advanced analytics is increasingly used in a number of industries, helping not only to measure risk and enable sound decision making but also helping make customer-facing processes as frictionless as possible, in order to match the expectations of today’s digital customer.

"CRIF is pleased to engage in this new project with the ICB and support them in enhancing and expanding their credit scoring services. We believe that by blending ICB’s unique historical database with CRIF’s international expertise in the field of advanced analytics applied to bureau data, it is possible to deliver an extremely powerful and predictive tool. We look forward to working closely with all the financial institutions operating in the Irish market, to efficiently integrate the score into their decision processes and to help them reach their broader business objectives”, concluded Giovanni Catinari, Strategic Business Development Manager at CRIF S.p.A.