Consumers continue to fight the recession by saving more and paying off debt, banks are responding with more careful lending, and stressed homeowners increasingly are falling behind on mortgages on their primary residence, according to the latest Equifax Credit Trends Report for September 2009. READ MORE

TransUnion and ID Analytics have announced that TransUnion will include ID Analytics' collections, credit, and identity risk solutions in TransUnion's portfolio of service offerings. According to the two firms, "ID Analytics' scores provide TransUnion customers with unique, real-time insight into consumers' fraud risk and creditworthiness across the entire lifecycle including origination, portfolio management and collections. The two companies are jointly delivering a suite of solutions that reduce credit losses, improve collection efforts, and reduce costs associated with fraudulent transactions." READ MORE

Equifax and FICO have introduced the Credit Capacity Index to give lenders and credit grantors easy access to a unique analytic tool to better assess consumer credit risk. The Index is "the first forward-looking risk management tool that rank-orders consumers based on their ability to take on future debt. Available through Equifax, Credit Capacity Index enables lenders to strengthen their account acquisition and account management strategies while minimizing exposure to potential losses while not burdening consumers with too much debt." READ MORE

TransUnion has announced that it TransUnion Credit Risk Index, a statistic developed to measure the changes in average consumer credit risk within various geographies, increased 1.98 percent from 124.79 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 127.26 in the first quarter of 2009. On a year-over-year basis, the Credit Risk Index increased 7.10 percent (from 118.83 in the first quarter of 2008), the largest increase for that time period in this decade. The Credit Risk Index is defined as the weighted average probability of 90-day delinquency or worse among consumers in a given region relative to the nation as a whole. READ MORE

Equifax has launched Debt Wise, a new product that uses information from the Equifax Credit Report to consumers to free themselves from debt--faster. According to Equifax, "Debt Wise effectively eliminates one of the biggest hurdles for many debt laden consumers -- getting started. Subscribers can create their personal debt payment plan online in as little as 10 minutes, in the privacy and comfort of their own home." READ MORE

In an article titled "Credit Score Shell Game", Nancy Trejos writes in Sunday's Washington Post about consumer frustrations with credit scores - how their credit scores are falling as a result of arbitrary credit line reductions or account closures by issuers. And, to add frustration, Trejos finds that "people who try to take matters in hand and pay to find out their credit scores discover that it can be difficult to learn the score that lenders actually use to evaluate them."

FICO has announced the release of its newest FICO scores targeted specifically to the automobile lending and bankcard industries. TransUnion is making the scores available to lenders and issuers under the names FICO® Risk Score, Classic Auto 08 and FICO® Risk Score, Classic Bankcard 08. READ MORE

Seeking Alpha has a good article this morning about the potential impact of credit card issuer credit line reductions on consumer FICO credit scores - creating a whole new segment of consumers who will migrate down to subprime status as a result of issuer actions, not actions taken by the consumers.

Experian and PredictiveMetrics have announced the launch of PriorityScore for Collections - "a suite of collection scoring models blending Experian's credit reporting agency data with client-supplied data that produces an accurate ranking and predictive forecast of consumer repayment amounts." READ MORE

LifeLock has announced that it has entered into "an agreement that will leverage TransUnion's secure, automated processes to expedite and enhance the delivery of identity theft services that LifeLock currently provides to its members." READ MORE

TransUnion.com has released the results of its analysis of trends in the credit card lending industry for the third quarter of 2008. The report is part of an ongoing series of quarterly consumer lending sector analyses focusing on credit card, auto loan and mortgage data that may be found on TransUnion's Web site. READ MORE

TransUnion has announced the launch of Payment Behaviour Score - described as "a new score to improve the effectiveness of acquisition and portfolio reviews for credit card businesses. This scoring solution is designed to strengthen relationships with cardholders and enhance the portfolio management strategy for the credit card providers." READ MORE

MicroBilt and PRBC have announced are that they are "teaming to help small-to-medium (SME) enterprises and financial institutions conduct more business with an estimated 50-70 million American consumers with “thin” or no established credit histories. The two companies will merge payment data collected by MicroBilt and PRBC in PRBC’s data repository to help more consumers qualify for FICO® Expansion® scores used by lenders and financial institutions in underwriting new loans. As part of the agreement, MicroBilt will make an equity investment in PRBC." READ MORE

Equifax and Fair Isaac have announced a partnership "to develop and sell advanced analytics and scoring solutions for businesses and consumers. Under the agreement, the two companies will leverage Equifax's consumer credit data and Fair Isaac's scoring technology, and will jointly market and sell new FICO analytic products." READ MORE

PRBC, a bill payment credit bureau, has announced that its credit verification, reporting and scoring procedures meet or exceed new guidance provided by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for verifying "bill payment" histories and establishing credit scores for borrowers with little or no traditional credit files or FICO scores. READ MORE

Experian and Credit Builders Alliance (CBA) have announced the launch of a data-reporting partnership that enables CBA's members to report microloan repayment data to Experian to help thousands of small business entrepreneurs build a credit history. READ MORE

In an article titled The Credit Rating in Your Shoe Box, Ben Levisohn and Brian Burnsed write for Business Week about Pay Rent, Build Credit (PRBC). "They've captured the attention of lenders right now who want growth in new markets [like the unbanked]," says Michael Turner of Political & Economic Research Council (PERC), a public policy group.

Equifax has announced that it has agreed to acquire a 28 percent equity stake in Global Payments Credit Services LLC (GPCS), a credit information company in Russia, from Global Payments Europe, s.r.o., a subsidiary of Global Payments Inc., and Home Credit and Finance Bank of Russia (Home Credit). READ MORE

TransUnion has published its analysis of trends in the credit card lending industry during the 4th quarter of 2007 - making it available on TransUnion.com. The company says this report is the first in a planned series of quarterly consumer lending sector analyses that TransUnion will publish on the site.

Experian has announced the launch of Emerging Credit Score, a new credit scoring tool developed with eBureau designed to assist lenders in evaluating the creditworthiness of unbanked and underbanked consumers.

Billeo and Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC), an alternative credit bureau that collects, reports and scores rental and bill payment data, have announced that they are working together to enable consumers to build credit by doing what they do each month – pay their recurring bills on time.

The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released a new discussion paper titled "Alternative Data and Its Use in Credit Scoring Thin- and No-File Consumers" .

Experian( has announced it has filed a lawsuit against LifeLock, Inc. "for allegedly placing fraud alerts illegally on credit files maintained by Experian."

TransUnion and Edgar, Dunn & Company have announced the Revolver Model, "the second scoring model to identify predictive credit behavior characteristics using survey-based data from the PaymentDynamics 2007 Preferred Payments Study. The Revolver Model helps financial institutions determine how consumers prefer to manage their credit card balances and enables banks to develop custom marketing offers accordingly."

Fair Isaac and Associacao Comercial de Sao Paulo (ACSP), one of the largest credit bureaus in Brazil, have announced ACSP’s launch of Global FICO Score for Brazilian businesses - saying that "the launch of this innovative consumer credit-risk score makes Brazil the first South American nation to access Fair Isaac’s global-standard FICO credit risk scoring technology."

Experian has announced that it will offer "the option to freeze credit reports to consumers nationwide. Beginning Nov. 1, Experian will allow any consumer across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories to place a freeze on their credit report. A credit file freeze prevents new creditors from accessing the credit file without the consumer's consent."

TransUnion has announced that effective October 15, 2007, it will offer what it its calling "the credit reporting industry's first complete file freeze solution" - providing U.S. consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the ability to freeze their credit files, should they feel that step is warranted.

Online Banking Report's latest issue titled "The Market for Fraud Protection, Identity Theft, and Credit Monitoring Services" recommends that "the time is right for ALL financial institutions to add identity protection/monitoring to their online offerings. The service has been optimized for Web delivery; it provides clear user benefits; it’s relatively easy to implement, and it can directly contribute to the bottom line in real, fee-based dollars, not nebulous intangibles.”

Leslie McFadden of Bankrate.com interviews Evan Hendricks, the author of "Credit Scores & Credit Reports: How the System Really Works, What You Can Do", about his concerns with the credit reporting system in the US.

Last week, in testimony before the US House Financial Services Committee, Sandra Braunstein, Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs of The Federal Reserve Board, provided a deep look at consumer credit reports in the US. The Committee was looking into issues associated with errors in credit reports and how consumers can get the errors corrected.