Understand more about a consumer’s income
Without access to a current view of a consumer’s income, you could risk making the wrong affordability decisions that lead to a poor consumer outcome. Today more than ever, a consumer’s income and employment can change quickly and accessing an up-to-date view of income can be challenging, especially when incomes are often only captured at the point of application.
Affordability IQ can help you automatically verify a consumer’s income as well as monitor that income throughout the life of the commitment, without the need for them to upload any payslips or bank statements, offering a more streamlined journey and a better experience.
Identify income shocks, such as a redundancy or significant drop in income, track current account changes, and support consumers before they become vulnerable. As the process is personalised customers are treated fairly and meet their repayments today and in the future.
Further reading on income verification and estimation
Getting affordability decisions right
The cost-of-living crisis: Navigating the storm and financial outlook
Explore our key affordability solutions
Affordability IQ provides a quick and easy access to a more accurate, personalised view of income, expenditure, and credit worthiness throughout their time with you.
Share employment and income details securely with Work Report™ - the UK’s first digital employment verification service.
Essential expenditure and disposable income verification
Affordability isn’t just about income verification. A consumer may have a large, verified income but may also have several credit commitments, resulting in high indebtedness and a low capacity to afford credit.
Accurately understanding a consumer’s non-discretionary expenditure, essential spending on key items necessary for daily existence, helps to calculate the disposable income available to them. Without a view of a consumer's regularly committed expenditure, it is impossible to accurately determine their affordability and ability to pay while maintaining a reasonable standard of living.
But verifying consumer expenditure can be tricky; accessing this information takes lots of time and resources. People may not always provide a full view of their spending habits and not everyone is aware of how much their essential spending is, plus expenditure can change over time when changing jobs, moving house, or having a baby, which makes it difficult to get an accurate picture.
Affordability Passport enables a consumer to consent to share their bank transaction data in a single data passport to show their income, expenditure, and credit commitments so you can accurately estimate and evidence a consumer's non-discretionary expenditure quickly, supporting affordability assessments across the lifecycle based on the consumer's ability to pay.
Further reading on essential expenditure and disposable income
Getting affordability decisions right
How to stay ahead in the mortgage market by saying goodbye to payslips
Lend smarter, support better: Automated insights from categorised credit card expenditure analysis
How can we help?
Experian's Affordability Passport offers the highest level of personalised affordability and is fully configurable to include or exclude credit data.
Categorising transactional data and insights so you can make better, more informed decisions at every step of the credit lifecycle.
Monitor affordability
It is essential to continuously monitor a consumer’s affordability and wider financial situation to ensure they can continue to meet their obligations. Without ongoing monitoring, it is difficult to spot changes in behaviour or signs of financial stress, consumers that need support may not be identified, which in turn could lead to delinquency and financial detriment.
Affordability assessments require time and resources to maintain, particularly as models need regular updates to reflect changes that may impact a consumer's essential expenditure. Often a consumer's financial situation changes over time, making it a challenge to keep up to date.
With Affordability IQ you can proactively monitor a customer’s affordability, react quickly to financial changes and support those who need it, with a range of data throughout the lifecycle.
Identify when a consumer's current account balance is reducing or they’re regularly using an overdraft with Balance insights. Identify consumers with low financial resilience using Indebtedness Metrics and recognise changes in income throughout your relationship utilising Income Shock and Stability metrics.
Further reading on monitoring affordability
Getting affordability decisions right
Lend smarter, support better: Automated insights from categorised credit card expenditure analysis
Discover our affordability solutions
Gaming Affordability IQ provides more accurate insight on an individual’s financial well-being. It provides real-time access to data on a player’s capacity to play to inform spending limits and identify vulnerability.
Experian's Affordability Passport offers the highest level of personalised affordability and is fully configurable to include or exclude credit data
Supporting vulnerable customers
Due to the current volatility of the UK market and increasing financial pressure on household budgets, means a consumer’s financial situation could change quickly, which makes measuring affordability and potential vulnerability a challenge
Access a range of insights and tools to monitor financial circumstances, manage risk and know when to take the right action at the right time to support those customers who need it most.
Further reading on the impact of the cost of living crisis
Consumer Duty Regulation for Credit Risk
How are customers keeping up with essential bills during the cost-of-living squeeze?
Explore our solutions
Affordability IQ provides a quick and easy access to a more accurate, personalised view of income, expenditure, and credit worthiness throughout their time with you.
Gaming Affordability IQ provides more accurate insight on an individual’s financial well-being. It provides real-time access to data on a player’s capacity to play to inform spending limits and identify vulnerability.
FCA Consumer Duty, CONC and MCOB
The new FCA Consumer Duty regulation requires firms to put in place robust personalised affordability assessments to drive the best outcomes for consumers.
The duty sets standards to ensure the protection of consumers when requiring financial services, ensuring that a consumer’s income and expenditure have been verified or reasonably estimated and considered when offering the consumer, a service or credit. To comply with the Consumer Duty regulation firms must evidence their affordability processes, ensure any agreements are affordable throughout the term and that consumers are supported and not put at risk of any financial harm.
FCA MCOB guidelines
The MCOB guidelines are for lenders who regulate mortgage contracts and home purchase plans. They are used to assess consumer affordability when buying a house, ensuring the consumer understands the contract terms, repayments are affordable and they avoid financial harm, throughout the term.
FCA CONC guidelines
The CONC, consumer credit source bank, guidelines are for lenders who provide credit-related activities to consumers. To remain compliant lenders must accurately assess a customer's affordability, ensure they understand the loan terms and adhere to Consumer Duty requirements.
Our Affordability solutions offer insights tailored to help you respond to market, economic and regulatory changes so you always have a current view of an individual’s financial situation, today and throughout your relationship so you can remain compliant and make the right decisions at the right time.
Further reading on affordability compliance and regulation
Our affordability solutions
Affordability IQ provides a quick and easy access to a more accurate, personalised view of income, expenditure, and credit worthiness throughout their time with you.
Experian's Affordability Passport offers the highest level of personalised affordability and is fully configurable to include or exclude credit data
