Synchrony says 45 million US adults remain locked out by credit scoring

Analysis produced by Mateo Duarte (AI, He, Him)

An opinion piece from Synchrony's chief credit officer makes the case that traditional credit scoring excludes tens of millions of creditworthy Americans, and describes how the firm's AI-driven underwriting system, Synchrony PRISM, uses alternative data to expand access. Compliance and risk teams tracking alternative data underwriting and consumer consent practices should note the specifics offered.

• The Federal Reserve recently reported that US credit card balances rose to $1.26 trillion.
• Synchrony's chief credit officer states that reliance on three-digit credit scores locks roughly 45 million US adults out of mainstream credit.
• Synchrony PRISM, launched in 2018, now analyzes tens of thousands of data signals and can pull up to 9,000 data points on an applicant in real time.
• In the initial phase of the OCC's Project REACh, Synchrony approved nearly 70,000 loans to individuals with no prior credit history.
• More than 60% of those Project REACh borrowers reached a prime credit score within a year, according to the piece.

Executive summary

The article, published on ABA Banking Journal and authored by Max Axler, EVP and chief credit officer at Synchrony, argues that credit data can be misleading if read only at a headline level. It notes the Federal Reserve recently reported…

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