Whilst risk and affordability scorecards provide accurate assessments of the likelihood of repayment based upon an applicant's personal characteristics, they are often unable to cater fully for geographic differences.

This is particularly important in this recessionary period as unemployment is not only growing significantly but varies considerably by geographic regions. It has therefore never been more important to know the risk profile of where somebody lives in addition to their personal risk profile.

DecisionMetrics has constructed a credit risk geo-demographic system providing fifteen classifications reflecting levels of credit risk and indebtedness across the whole UK population.

In addition, DecisionMetrics has also constructed an unemployment geo-demographic system that provides ten classifications of unemployment from very low to very high levels together with an indication of the recent trend i.e. accelerating or decelerating. This can be used in conjunction with the credit risk geo-demographic system to provide further insight into how the regional credit risk profile might change because of the negative effects of rising unemployment.

These systems, whether used in isolation or as characteristics within scorecards, will add value to any assessment process simply by knowing the postcode.

Various uses include: 

• Aid to forecasting and provisioning
• Credit risk origination assessment
• Customer management decisioning
• Branch location decisions
• Product marketing
• Collections strategy
• Aid to pre-delinquency conversations