“How many features should I have in my model?” It sounds like a simple question. But like so many modeling decisions—especially in the credit space—the honest answer is: it depends . We often hear this question from internal teams and executives alike. It comes up when a team is building its first in-house model, when it's looking to upgrade an existing scorecard, or even when trying to explain why their current model looks the way it does. At Ensemblex, we've built models fo

We get the question almost every week—from Series A founders, Heads of Lending at established fintechs, even board members. They’re usually questioning if they can wait: wait until they’ve raised more capital, collected more data, or even wait to see if they can stem a rising risk crisis themselves. An Executive Risk Advisor (ERA) is an investment, and our clients want to make it judiciously. Well, the answer is straightforward. We’ll get into common hesitations and our advic

One of the most common questions we hear about credit model modernization is this: “We use a lot of underwriting rules—how can we safely reduce or replace them?” Or more bluntly: “Our model isn’t doing much. Most of the real work is happening in the knockouts.” Many lenders start with a simple rules-based credit policy, planning to grow out of it over time. But shedding the knockouts is easier said than done. What starts as a short-term solution often turns into a long-term l

Years ago, while running at a subprime lending operation, we used to offer customers the option to receive their credit card via standard mail or pay $25 for expedited delivery. It was meant as a simple revenue boost. Then, when we looked at the default rates for both populations, we saw that customers who chose to pay extra to expedite their card delivery were significantly higher risk. The urgency to receive the card revealed something deeper about their financial situatio

Every credit card application flow will include some sort of bureau data request, often called a credit "pull". There are multiple kinds of credit pulls: "hard" and "soft". What type you use and when may seem like a subtle difference, but, as is a theme in lending, nuances can have outsized impacts. How and when you pull credit will impact your conversion, customer experience, and risk management. First, at a technical level: Soft pulls give you access to a consumer’s credit

Choosing the right underwriting model is one of the most strategic decisions a lender makes. The right approach depends on many factors:...