CreditGauge LIVE

Consumer sentiment is down, but the credit data tells a different story. Delinquencies improved across all VantageScore credit tiers in May, and originations rebounded, led by personal loans, which hit a nine-month high. In this episode, David Battany, EVP of Capital Markets at Guild Mortgage, shares how one of the nation's largest independent mortgage lenders is navigating affordability pres...

Fair lending isn't just a compliance obligation; in the age of AI, it's a model quality issue. In this episode, Kareem Saleh, Founder and CEO of FairPlay AI, explores why the best-performing lenders are optimizing for fairness, predictive accuracy, and explainability together, not as separate work streams. In the full episode, Kareem covers: ➡️ Why fairness blind spots are model performa...

Debt service burdens are rising across multiple asset classes, and many lenders still aren't filling the data gaps that would help them see it coming. In this episode, Matt Komos, Founder and CEO of OGMA Risk and Analytics, shares research on VantageScore 4.0's performance in mortgage pre-screening and where lenders are leaving risk management on the table. In the full episode, Matt cove...

Hundreds of thousands of consumers want to buy homes but aren't quite mortgage-ready. Marcia Griffin has spent her career working with that 95%. In this episode, Marcia Griffin, Founder and CEO of HomeFree-USA, shares what she's hearing from consumers on the ground and what lenders need to do differently to reach them. In the full episode, Marcia covers: ➡️ Why getting consumers to simpl...

Early-stage delinquencies rose across all credit tiers in January, more consumers are migrating into subprime and near-prime, and mortgage originations are ticking up. For lenders, the question is how to capture the opportunity that VantageScore 4.0 is now unlocking. In this episode, Tony Hutchinson, EVP and Head of Public Affairs at VantageScore and former executive at both Fannie Mae and Freddie...

Every month, the consumer credit landscape shifts — delinquency trends move, originations rise or fall, and the economic pressures on borrowers evolve. CreditGauge LIVE is where lenders and credit professionals come to understand what the data actually means. Hosted by VantageScore's Jeff Richardson, Susan Fahy, and Atif Mirza, each episode combines the latest CreditGauge™ data with an in-dep...

The average VantageScore ended 2025 at 700, down two points for the year, and the subprime tier is growing while the prime tier contracts. But underneath the averages, a tale of two consumers is emerging that averages alone can't capture. In this episode, Silvio Tavares, President and CEO of VantageScore, makes the case that 2026 is a pivotal year for mortgage lenders, and that the biggest mi...

Late-stage delinquencies rose 30% year-over-year heading into the holidays, consumers are opening personal loans and credit cards to fund their shopping, and the K-shaped economy is showing up in credit union member data in very real ways. In this episode, Mani Massoomi, Chief Risk Officer at Patelco Credit Union, shares what he's watching this holiday season and pushes back on the instinct t...

Low-income consumer delinquencies rose 11% in October, the highest among income groups, marking a notable shift from earlier in the year, when mid- and higher-income households were leading delinquency increases. The K-shaped economy is clearly evident in the credit data. In this episode, Dr. Rikard Bandebo, Chief Economist and Chief Strategy Officer at VantageScore, traces how the delinquency sto...

For the first time ever, VantageScore had access to tens of millions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans spanning 10 years, enough to directly compare VantageScore 4.0 against classic FICO side by side. The results are clear. In this episode, Dr. Andrada Pacheco, Chief Data Scientist at VantageScore, shares what the analysis found and answers the model risk management question lenders are most oft...

Auto loans have gone from the least risky credit product post-recession to the riskiest today, and it's not a subprime story. VantageScore research tracing delinquency data back to 2010 points to something more structural. In this episode, Dr. Rikard Bandebo, Chief Economist and Chief Strategy Officer at VantageScore, breaks down what's really driving auto loan stress and what lenders sh...

Late-stage delinquencies are rising across all credit tiers, the average VantageScore dropped to 701, and more consumers are shifting into subprime. At the same time, leading institutions are rethinking how they make credit decisions, and machine learning is changing what's possible. In this episode, Jay Budzik, SVP and Director of AI and Machine Learning Operations at Fifth Third Bank, expla...

The FHFA just made history. For the first time, GSE-funded mortgages can be underwritten using a scoring model other than the classic FICO score. VantageScore 4.0 is now approved, and the mortgage market is working through what that means. In this episode, Armine Karajyan, Senior Director of RMBS at KBRA, shares her analysis of the FHFA announcement and what KBRA's research on hundreds of tho...

Mortgage delinquencies posted the largest year-over-year increase of any credit product, and superprime delinquencies tripled. Three forces are driving it: inflation, rising home prices, and a credit scoring system built for a very different economy. In this episode, Tony Hutchinson, EVP and Head of Public Affairs at VantageScore and a former executive at both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, explains...

Auto loans are surging as consumers rush to lock in purchases ahead of tariffs, but early-stage auto delinquencies jumped 32% month over month. For ABS investors and lenders, the question is how tariffs will impact the market. In this episode, Mike Girard, Senior Director of Asset-Backed Securities at Fitch Ratings, breaks down how tariffs are already disrupting vehicle production and why Fitch re...

Consumer credit stabilized in March, the average VantageScore rebounded to 702, and credit card balances held essentially flat. But behind the scenes, institutional investors are growing more cautious about the direction of the economy. In this episode, Joe Lau, President and Chief Investment Officer of Lord Capital and Chairman of the Fixed Income Investor Network, explains the critical role the...

Auto loan delinquencies are rising across all categories, the average VantageScore credit score dropped for the first time in 11 months, and student loan reporting resumption is already showing up in late-stage delinquency data. What does the rest of 2025 look like for consumer lenders? In this episode, Kelsey Zhu, Director and Senior Research Analyst at Autonomous Research, shares her data-driven...

Millions of federal student loan borrowers are about to be reported delinquent, some for the first time in five years. With 45 million borrowers and over $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt, the resumption of student loan credit reporting is one of the most significant events in consumer credit in recent memory. In this episode, Dan Currell, Former Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Education,...

Student loan delinquencies haven't appeared on credit files for nearly five years, and starting in early 2025, they're back. With over $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, lenders face a significant blind spot as consumer credit stress begins to build. In this debut episode, Dr. Rikard Bandebo, Chief Economist and Chief Strategy Officer at VantageScore, breaks down what the re...