Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 11, 2008

PRBC and NCRA Announce New Data Quality Standard

New Agreed-Upon Procedures and Compliance Audits to Mitigate Fraud when Using Rental and Other Bill Payments in Credit Reports and Scores

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Payment Reporting Builds Credit^® (PRBC^®), a national consumer-centric credit bureau, and the National Credit Reporting Association, the national trade association of credit reporting agencies, jointly released new protocols effective March 1, 2008 for manually verifying a credit applicants' identity, rental and regular bill payment account histories (trade lines) for inclusion in PRBC Reports with FICO Expansion Score.

The move is a significant step in assuring that NCRA members who perform manual trade line verifications for lenders will now use the same procedures to assure consistent data quality. These include archiving their findings in the PRBC repository where they can be used to supplement a bureau report and score and for quality assurance audits.

The new procedures include safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest and to audit members' compliance. NCRA's Data Quality Standards Committee will shortly release a request for proposals, inviting major audit firms to manage the audit program. Only those trade line histories that have been manually verified using the new procedures will be incorporated in PRBC's credit data repository and its credit reports. In turn, PRBC will make its repository available for data quality audits and fraud investigations.

"For some time, mortgage and some auto lenders have considered rent and utility payment histories to assess creditworthiness and price loans when borrowers lacked traditional credit histories," said Michael Nathans, PRBC's founder. "But the collection and verification of such trade line data has been inconsistent, un-monitored, and un-scored. As a result, we have been told by secondary market investors and mortgage insurers that the repayment performance of loans approved using this data has varied widely from lender to lender and that data quality is the suspected cause. Our goal in partnering with NCRA is to simplify and standardize the way payment histories are compiled; eliminate conflicts that can result in fraud; and finally to create an audit program that will assure lenders and investors that consumer information in the PRBC repository is a reliable supplement to credit reports and scores."

"Until now our industry has lacked standard protocols and oversight for how unreported trade lines get verified," said NCRA Executive Director Terry Clemans. "In many cases lenders have allowed trade lines to be documented by brokers or loan officers who have vested interests in obtaining a loan approval and who may not require the proper paper documentation or make the necessary calls to references. Now, thanks to collaboration between our Data Quality Standards Committee and PRBC, NCRA members have a workable blueprint that will help consumers qualify for the credit they deserve, and at the same time provide a greater comfort level for lenders and investors."

Also commenting on the development were:

Susan Cataldo, Chair of the NCRA's Data Quality Standards Committee and co-owner of CDS Mortgage Reports, Inc., a national credit reporting company. "What has been missing in our industry is consensus regarding what types of accounts qualify for inclusion in a non-traditional credit report and standardized procedures for obtaining and documenting the information, so the release of the PRBC/NCRA standard is timely and important," said Ms. Cataldo. "I have worked with the PRBC team for two years and am impressed by their commitment to data quality and privacy protection. The PRBC bill payment report allows us to enhance our services to our customer and results in a win-win-win for the consumer, the broker and the lender."
Shawn Moore, Fair Isaac Director Global Scoring Solutions. "We continue to be impressed by the innovation and leadership coming from PRBC. Our partnership with them led to the industry's first FICO score combined with rental and nontraditional bill payment histories - an important innovation for lenders and the growing number of consumers with thin credit files," said Ms. Moore. "And now, PRBC's partnership with NCRA will set an important new standard for fraud mitigation when it comes to using rental and other bill payment histories in credit reports and scores. This commitment to continual innovation is to be applauded."
Citizens Home Loan Bank, a wholesale mortgage lender serving large numbers of first-time and "emerging market" borrowers, also endorsed the new data quality standards. "We represent and warrant the quality of the rental and bill payment history we use to manually underwrite loans under the GSEs' community lending programs or under the FHA," said Scott Hastings, Senior Vice President for originations at Citizens. "We've minimized our repurchase liability by relying on PRBC and NCRA members to verify rental and bill pay histories, letting us encourage our originators to be more aggressive in seeking opportunities among borrowers who lack traditional credit histories."

About NCRA

The National Credit Reporting Association, Inc. (NCRA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1992 that represents the Consumer Reporting Industry and specifically Mortgage Credit Reporting Agencies. NCRA represents more than 95 of the 120 Credit Reporting Agencies in the United States and Puerto Rico that produce the specialized Mortgage Credit Reports as required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for mortgage loan underwriting. NCRA members provide the mortgage lending community in excess of 3 million mortgage credit reports per month.

About Fair Isaac

Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE: FIC) combines trusted advice, world-class analytics and innovative applications to help businesses make smarter decisions. Fair Isaac's solutions and technologies for Enterprise Decision Management turn strategy into action and elevate business performance by giving organizations the power to automate more decisions, improve the quality of their decisions, and connect decisions across their business. Clients in 80 countries work with Fair Isaac to increase customer loyalty and profitability, cut fraud losses, manage credit risk, meet regulatory and competitive demands, and rapidly build market share. Fair Isaac also helps millions of individuals manage their credit health through the www.myFICO.com website. Learn more about Fair Isaac at www.fairisaac.com.

About PRBC

PRBC is a consumer reporting agency that collects, stores, scores, and reports bill payment data in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It is the first credit repository to give prospective borrowers the tools to demonstrate their creditworthiness without the need to go into debt. PRBC receives payment data from financial institutions' bill payment services when consumers choose to have their payments reported. In addition, PRBC has partnered with the National Credit Reporting Association to use industry best practices to verify trade line accounts and up to three years worth of prior payments that consumers can report directly to PRBC.

PRBC has reviewed and has determined that their reports comply with Fannie Mae's, Freddie Mac's, and FHA's standards for documenting creditworthiness in the absence of a traditional credit history. PRBC does not charge consumers a fee to enroll in the service or to view their own payment data. Consumers and businesses can learn more about PRBC at www.prbc.com.

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