S&P and Experian in consumer data deal to help analyse risk on loans

by Noelle McElhatton, marketingdirectmag.co.uk 26-Nov-09, 07:20

LONDON - Consumer data giant Experian has partnered with credit ratings agency Standard & Poor for provision of credit data to help analyse risk on complex loans.

Securitised loans - where lending products such as mortgages are bundled up and sold onto investors - became popular in the run-up to the credit crunch but attracted controversy for the lack of risk analysis underpinning them.

Experian said the deal will help "restore investor confidence" in securitised loans.

S&P's Fixed Income Risk Management Services (FIRMS), an analytics and research unit separate from S&P's ratings business, will integrate Experian credit data and analytics into its risk modelling.

The data collaboration will focus particularly on the individual loans that are packaged in mortgage-backed securities.

"Securitised loan investors need to be able to drill down to the foundation of each individual loan in their portfolios to gain a truly comprehensive picture of their risk exposures," said David Goldstein, managing director, Fixed Income Risk Management Services, S&Ps.

"Through our partnership with Experian, we will be able to provide investors with ... granularity on the fundamental risks in each loan and the ability to benchmark their portfolios against this data."

S&P is a subsidiary of US publishing firm McGraw-Hill and is quoted on the New York Stock Exchange.

Experian is headquartered in the UK and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.