2025 Alternative Credit Data Impact Report
Exploring the global evolution of alternative data use in financial services.
Download the report
Financial institutions are looking to alternative data to reduce risk exposure and improve portfolio performance.
In 2024, alternative data helped lenders regain visibility into consumer creditworthiness. Today, growing confidence in the predictive power of these insights is driving deeper integration across the credit lifecycle, as lenders make strategic adjustments to strengthen decision making and improve portfolio performance.
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions worked with Datos Insights to conduct a global online survey of 875 individuals at financial institutions across 10 countries. Collectively, their responses indicate a stronger focus on end-risk management and operational precision in response to current and anticipated market changes. In the latest edition of our annual report:
Download the reportLexisNexis® Risk Solutions worked with Datos Insights to conduct a global online survey of 875 individuals at financial institutions across 10 countries. Collectively, their responses indicate a stronger focus on end-risk management and operational precision in response to current and anticipated market changes. In the latest edition of our annual report:
- Discover the top challenges lenders expect to face over the next two years
- Learn about leading drivers behind alternative data adoption and expansion
- Explore the measurable impact of alternative data on risk evaluation and portfolio performance
Turn alternative data into your competitive advantage.
Explore how alternative data is helping organizations sharpen risk assessment, optimize efficiency and compete more effectively through clearer, deeper insights into consumer behavior and financial stability.
Download the following resources to learn more:
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Gain Next-Generation Insights
Alternative credit data looks beyond traditional credit data, which typically focuses on long-established credit activities. These expanded credit insights, when paired with traditional credit behaviors, deliver a more comprehensive view into a consumer's creditworthiness.
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Public Records |
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Identity Insights |
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Stability Insights |
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Address Insights |
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Alternative Credit
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Asset Insights |
Alternative Data Offers Expanded Insight
An improved understanding of consumer credit risk can help you see
opportunity where others simply see risk.
Benefits of Non-Traditional Credit Sources
The key to better lending decisions is incremental predictive insights.
Using scoring models and attributes which tap into proven and reliable sources of alternative credit data allows you to:
Extend better offers
Improve credit decisions on the margin by moreeffectively evaluating borderline applicants.
Grow approval rates
Identify off-margin consumers underestimatedby traditional credit scores.
Expand your addressable market
Seize opportunities to turn credit invisibles — boththin-file and no-file consumers — into valuable customers.
Improve booking rate and profitability
Extend more accurate pricing and terms to consumers across the credit spectrum who have been misclassified by traditional credit assessments.
Enhance portfolio management process
Monitor changes across the customer lifecycle. Have Sales Contact Me
Frequently Asked Questions
Alternative credit data (sometimes referred to as alternative data) is credit decisioning data that incorporates life event insights like professional licenses, asset ownership and public records, as well as credit-seeking behaviors from markets like online lending and short-term lending. Alternative data is not credit tradeline information.
Our alternative data provides risk intelligence to better assess an individual or organization's credit risk beyond traditional credit data. These insights may include enriched visibility into credit-seeking behavior, professional licenses, residential stability, asset ownership and more.
Alternative data examples include utility payments, professional licensing, asset ownership, liens, judgments and bankruptcy records.
Alternative data can help fill the gaps in credit history to present a more robust view of creditworthiness—allowing lenders to more accurately assess consumer credit risk, expand addressable markets and extend new financial opportunities to historically underserved populations.
Financial institutions that use alternative data for credit risk assessment can address the two primary consumer segments who struggle with financial inclusion, credit invisible consumers and non-prime consumers. By scoring the vast majority of credit invisible consumers underestimated by traditional data, alternative data can unlock meaningful financial inclusion opportunities for lenders.
Fostering Financial Inclusion with Alternative Data
It’s time to take an alternative look at financial inclusion.
20% of U.S. consumers have little to no credit footprint using only tradeline credit indicators, but many may actually meet lenders’ risk standards.1 Many in this diverse group are eager to access credit products and services but are too often underestimated by traditional credit scores.
Alternative data can help fill the gaps in credit history to present a more robust view of creditworthiness—allowing lenders to more accurately assess consumer credit risk, expand addressable markets and extend new financial opportunities to historically underserved populations.
Shifting Perspectives on Financial Inclusion
Building financial inclusion strategies that drive revenue and increase customer opportunity.
Alternative data insights can open a new path to inclusion and opportunity.
Historically, marginalized communities have consistently lower rates of credit scorability with traditional credit scores. Augmenting traditional credit scores with alternative credit data can help lenders build a more complete picture of creditworthiness.
Implementing alternative data into credit risk assessment can help lenders better serve overlooked creditworthy individuals and turn thin- or no-file consumers into valuable customers.
Alternative data could help financial institutions drive meaningful inclusion in underserved communities2.
Lower rates of credit scorability
Only 68% of African American and
73% of Hispanic communities are
scorable using traditional credit data
Expand scorable consumers
Evaluate 28% more African American
and 22% more Hispanic consumers
by leveraging alternative data
Gain greater clarity
23% boost in ability to score and
evaluate traditionally unscorable
consumers
1. LexisNexis Risk Solutions Information Hub, 2021
2. LexisNexis Risk Solutions RiskView Financial Inclusion eBook
2. LexisNexis Risk Solutions RiskView Financial Inclusion eBook
Gain Unprecedented Insight into Risk
Unlock a more robust view of consumer creditworthiness.
Traditional credit scores have long been a strong indicator of consumer credit risk — but in today’s shifting economic environment, lenders need fresh tools to drive portfolio growth and stay competitive.
Alternative data can be used to augment tradeline credit indicators, uncovering hidden risk factors that traditional credit data might miss. Using alternative data can give lenders the nuanced insights they need to improve consumer segmentation, provide more competitive terms and limit exposure to risk.
Enhance your credit risk assessment.
Alternative data allows lenders to sharpen segmentation based on the conventional broad categories — such as near prime, prime and super prime — into granular subgroups wherein credit scores fall within 20-30-point ranges.
Leveraging additional insights can allow lenders to uncover notable differences among consumers within the same traditional credit tier and thus make better decisions suited to the individual applicant.
40%
of consumers being in
a more prime score band1
30%
of consumers being in
a less prime score band1
The benefits of an expanded view of risk.
Gain greater visibilityinto changing credit risk
Better serve consumers withimproving financial situations
Identify evolving risk factorsand mitigate exposure
Attract and retain moreprofitable accounts
Boost booking rates and averagecustomer lifetime values
Increase your competitive edge
1. LexisNexis Risk Solutions RiskView Refining Prime eBook
This article is for educational purposes only and does not guarantee the functionality or features of LexisNexis products identified. LexisNexis does not warrant this article is complete or error-free .