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

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

TransUnion.com has released the results of its analysis of trends in the credit card lending industry for the first quarter of 2009 based upon approximately 27 million anonymous, individual credit files - providing a real-life perspective on how U.S. consumers are managing their credit health.

Nationally, the bankcard delinquency rate (the ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their bankcards) increased to 1.32 percent in the first quarter of 2009, up 9.1 percent over the previous quarter. Year over year, bankcard delinquencies increased 11 percent from 1.19 to 1.32 percent. 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

TransUnion has announced newly updated TransUnion Account Management and TransUnion New Account scoring models claiming that "both models experienced improvements, over the previous versions, in their ability to identify bankrupt accounts -- in some cases by as much as 32 percent." READ MORE

Meta Payment Systems has announced it has contracted with Fiserv and TransUnion "to enhance the next generation of its award-winning iAdvance product. The partnerships enable Meta to expand its short-term, small dollar loan alternative that is accessed immediately on a MetaBank-issued prepaid card." READ MORE

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."

TransUnion's TrueCredit.com has commissioned GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media to assess Americans' thoughts about their finances at the turn of the New Year. "The survey found that in 2007, one in four (25 percent) of all Americans missed making one or more on-time bill payments, with the bulk of those delinquencies occurring on Utilities (12 percent), Credit Cards (12 percent) and Medical Services (11 percent). Meanwhile, only 17 percent choose paying down debt as their top resolution for 2008, down notably from 22 percent in last year's survey."

TransUnion and Edgar, Dunn & Company have announced initial findings from the PaymentDynamics 2007 Preferred Payments Study on consumer payment preferences, attitudes and behavior - concluding "that more consumers prefer debit cards than any other type of payment for point of sale purchases."

TransUnion’s TrueCredit.com has announced results from two surveys it recently commissioned with GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media designed to gauge distinct aspects of consumers’ current credit habits. "TrueCredit.com found that 35 percent of consumers actually report purchasing less on credit this holiday season than last year, when the same question yielded 43 percent. Similar to the 2006 survey, four in ten (43 percent) say they have the same amount of credit card debt this year as last, with 11 percent reporting they have more debt and 29 percent reporting they have less."

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Scott Coates has been named to lead product management and marketing communication for TransUnion's Canadian operations. Before TransUnion, Coates was manager of marketing strategy and analysis for Lexmark Canada Inc.'s consumer printer division.
• Robert McCabe Jr. has been named Chairman of the Board of Goldleaf Financial Solutions.

TransUnion has announced that it has joined Utica College’s Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP), a research collaborative composed of elite public and private sector organizations, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Secret Service, LexisNexis, IBM and three prominent universities. The organization is dedicated to using applied research to further a national research agenda on identity management, information sharing and data protection.

Fair Isaac Corporation has announced that it filed a lawsuit yesterday in Federal Court in Minneapolis "alleging that the three national credit reporting agencies and a jointly owned entity have violated antitrust laws and engaged in unfair competitive practices." Fair Isaac alleges that "Equifax Inc., Experian Information Solutions Inc., TransUnion LLC and VantageScore Solutions, LLC, through their launch and marketing of the VantageScore credit scoring model, are jointly engaging in unfair and anti-competitive practices that harm the FICO credit score brand and goodwill that Fair Isaac has spent 50 years creating."

TransUnion has announced it is acquiring Qsent, a Beaverton, Ore.-based provider of contact and identity management services that support customer acquisition and retention, collections and recovery and identity resolution applications.

NYPay has announced its formation as "New York City's premiere networking forum for professionals in the payments industry."

TransUnion and Edgar, Dunn & Company have announced they are developing the PaymentDynamics 2006 Preferred Payments Study, intended to be the "first of its kind to combine consumer payment attitudes, behavior and credit information." Results from the study are expected beginning in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Damon Darlin reports for the New York Times on VantageScore, the recently introduced alternative to the long-standing FICO scores produced by Fair Isaac. According to the three credit bureaus that created VantageScore - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, it improves risk prediction of future credit performance by weighing more factors. VantageScore also reportedly is more accurate at assessing consumers with "thin files" - having a short credit history.

TransUnion has announced RentBridge, a new patent-pending rental payment database that will gather and maintain rental payment history information to help apartment owners, property managers and other types of credit grantors make more informed risk, fraud and identity management, collections and marketing decisions.

TransUnion has announced Turnkey Triggers, "a new service that assists marketers in reaching prospective customers within hours of learning about changes to their credit profile that may predict newfound responsiveness to a targeted firm offer."

Advantage Credit has announced some results from a recent teleconference it hosted to explore the new VantageScore, a new consumer credit score jointly developed and introduced recently by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

TransUnion has announced it will be integrating the ID Analytics ID Score into its Fraud and Identity Management Services.

Eileen Alt Powell reports for the AP with more details about VantageScore, the new credit scoring system announced yesterday by the three major credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

The nation's three consumer credit reporting companies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- have jointly announced the introduction of a new credit score called VantageScore they say will simplify and enhance the credit process for both consumers and credit grantors.

TransUnion has announced Common Point of Purchase, a new fraud detection service designed to identify merchants where magnetic stripe skimming may be occurring. A similar service has been available in Canada for five years.