Through the Foundation partnership, Equifax will provide a specified set of data points for an approved research project at no cost.
Researchers who wish to include this data in their proposals should keep in mind they will be required to sign a Researcher Agreement separate from Foundation grant documents. The Researcher Agreement is designed to provide protections on the use of the data in the form of non-compete and anonymity. Additionally, researchers will need to go through Equifax’s process for approving data users and be approved to receive and use Equifax data for their research.
Data Sets
Approved data sets can be created for archive periods. These are snap shots of how the credit looked at the “as of” date. Data sets are usually limited to 100,000 records in size which is usually enough to complete studies. Any requested data sets beyond this size require additional approval from the Foundation and Equifax.
Standard Data Fields
Equifax's database has more than 200 data fields, including contract and borrower information as well as custom score variables. The types of fields included are as follows:
- Borrower Business Background Information
- Current Outstanding Long-Term Debt
- Historical Long-Term Debt
- Borrower Payment Habits
- Obligation Type (Lease, Loan, etc.)
- Obligation Legal Status with Lender
- Equifax's MasterScore® (credit score built using Equifax's Commercial Database allowing for comparisons of borrowers' risk)
All data fields are available at a contract level, but credit history information can be aggregated for borrower averages and totals as well.
Supplemental Data Fields
If your research requires data fields that are not part of the Standard Data Fields, it is possible these fields can be specially sourced and appended to the Standard Data Fields for you. Commissioned researchers will work with the Foundation and Equifax to define the needed extra fields, and to assess the feasibility of sourcing those fields. Once approved, the sourcing of a file containing the supplemental data fields will take extra time.
Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA)
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) has agreed to offer researchers access to millions of data points collected through its annual Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA). The SEFA is the primary source of business metrics for equipment finance organizations. The Survey reflects data from approximately 110 responding organizations and provides information such as profitability, volume, portfolio performance, asset concentrations, operations, and risk management. Primarily an internal research and benchmarking tool, selected data points are customized for presentation to external publics, including state and federal policymakers and media.
SEFA Data Fields
Download and view a sample survey questionnaire to see hundreds of data points collected during the survey process.
About ELFA visit: www.ELFAOnline.org
