Equifax® (NYSE: EFX) today announced the launch of Credit Abuse Risk, a new predictive model that uses FCRA-regulated data and is designed to help protect lenders against first-party fraud and drive more confident lending decisions.

As the financial impact of first-party fraud continues to rise, Credit Abuse Risk was developed to uncover atypical patterns indicative of two types of fraudulent activities: loan stacking, when an individual quickly applies for multiple loans with no intent to repay those loans, and credit washing, when a person tries to remove accurate, but negative information from a credit report. These patterns can be identified during prequalification offers, account origination, or portfolio review. This allows lenders to modify loan terms based on FCRA-compliant insights.