Veda Advantage

Veda Advantage credits reliable data as key to success

With around 4 million credit check enquiries a year Veda Advantage needs to provide its clients with accurate information instantly. Terralink's data is helping them do just that.

Challenge: Beyond reasonable doubt

When a business needs to establish a person's credit rating, chances are they run a check through the Veda Advantage credit bureau.

With its New Zealand Head Office in Auckland, the company processes over 14,000 enquiries a day, helping others to assess credit risk for car loans, mortgages and other lending options.

Veda Advantage Head of New Zealand Bureau Operations, Daniel de Vries, says accurate data is crucial to cope with the volume of enquiries.

"Data is our business and we take it very seriously. We're committed to giving our customers accurate and robust insights.

"Our challenge is ensuring that our data is current and robust. Verifying a person's existence via matches of their name, date of birth and address is often only the start because that doesn't identify their potential risk as a borrower of credit.

Mr de Vries says property data can provide essential background information for Veda Advantage.

"We may need to instantly verify property ownership information, to check whether a person actually owns the property they claim to, it's worth what they say it's worth, and that they owe as much as they say they do," he says.

Solution: Best in the business

Mr de Vries says there appeared to be no competition when it came to sourcing the most accurate property data available.

"No other company could match Terralink International. They know what they're talking about and are experts in the property space."

Veda Advantage links into Terralink's property data and can check who owns a property, previous sales and owners, maps of where property is located, current valuation and details on any mortgages on the property.

"One of the impressive things about Terralink is that they provide fire, ambulance and police with property information. We thought that if the emergency services trusted their data it must be considered by them to be the best around.

"They can also provide us with information on apartments. There are a growing number of apartment complexes and they can be high risk in terms of lending. The fact that Terralink could provide detailed information on apartments was a major bonus for us," Mr de Vries says.

Business benefit: Trust builds confidence

Mr de Vries says the key to Veda Advantage's success is trust and reliability.

"We need to be able to trust the data because data is what our business is built on and we have confidence in Terralink's data. We can provide a credit check and risk assessment within four seconds and that is crucial when we deal with 4 million enquiries every year," Mr de Vries says.