News

Expanded Mortgage Credit Reports: Helping More Americans Achieve the Dream of Homeownership

February 28, 2023

PROMOTING FINANCIALLY INCLUSIVE LENDING practices is a central part of our company purpose—to help people live their financial best, and today Equifax announced a critical step in helping achieve that goal with the expansion of U.S. mortgage credit reports. Equifax is the first Nationwide Credit Reporting Agency (NCRA) to make certain telecommunications (telco), pay TV and utilities attributes available to the mortgage industry to provide a fuller picture of consumers’ financial profiles—potentially opening up the dream of homeownership to potentially more than 191 million American consumers, 80% of whom have traditional credit files, but may benefit from additional insights into their financial profile.

Buying a home is a powerful investment, and the majority of Americans still believe homeownership is a key part of achieving the “American Dream.” The benefits of owning a home are numerous, but from a financial perspective, it is a significant wealth-building tool. Homeownership can provide meaningful financial stability over renting by enabling people to lock in monthly housing payments for the length of the home loan. 

However, homeownership can be difficult for the “credit invisible” to achieve, since the process could potentially exclude younger consumers and those building or rebuilding credit who have demonstrated positive payment history through alternative means.

In fact, research from Andrew Davidson & Co. in relationship with Equifax confirms there is a strong correlation between positive consumer utility payment history and future positive mortgage payment performance. Consumers across a wide range of credit scores for these borrowers, most notably among borrowers from the high-end of subprime (credit scores of 580-619) through lower prime (credit scores of 660-719) score bands who may have been more likely to face challenges in obtaining a mortgage or who may have been offered higher rates based on their credit files alone. And, the majority of U.S. adults have at least one utility bill in their name, making utility data a powerful indicator of past financial reliability. 

“Equifax understands that a single financial opportunity can be a critical step to establishing individual financial health and generational wealth, changing the trajectory of families and communities for generations,” said Mark W. Begor, CEO of Equifax. “More data drives better decisions, and we have invested billions into cloud-based technology solutions and powerful differentiated data sources that give new visibility to underserved individuals, empowering our customers to bring greater access to financial opportunity to more people.”

Telco, pay TV and utilities attributes are another way to leverage alternative data insights to help more consumers gain access to mortgage loans, providing additional insights into their financial profile that can make mortgage underwriting faster and easier.

The addition of telco, pay TV and utilities insights alongside Equifax traditional mortgage credit reports is one of many ways Equifax is promoting greater access to credit and financially inclusive lending practices. These Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)-compliant insights provide anonymized information to streamline the mortgage application process as consumers seek approval for a home loan. This expanded data cannot be used by mortgage lenders to deny applications for credit or other services.

“With these highly structured telco, pay TV and utilities attributes now being available to Equifax customers alongside traditional mortgage credit reports, we look forward to partnering with the mortgage industry so that, together, we can realize the full potential in helping millions of Americans achieve their goal of home ownership,” said Craig Crabtree, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Equifax Mortgage & Housing Services.

Expanded U.S. mortgage credit reports are available now to the mortgage industry. For more information on Equifax Mortgage and Housing Solutions, visit equifax.com