While the analysis of crime data at the zipcode level is a powerful tool, it should not be used exclusively to inform the sale price of financial offerings. Doing so may result in unintentional discrimination. 

There are a slew of other criteria that make their way into the risk management equation: credit history, income level, tenure, overall property condition, neighborhood amenities, access to public services, etc. All of this information and more is available via the utilization of external data sources. 

The Status Quo 

External databases are often topic-specific and narrow in focus. One vendor may only report on crime data while another exclusively contains credit information, and a third records information unique to property details, and so on. Developing business relationships with the series of data vendors required to access such a robust and varied dataset can take a large amount of time, money and resources.

Demyst’s CEO, Mark Hookey, describes the status quo best, “figuring out who the vendors are, taking sales meetings, reviewing contracts, conducting references, negotiating bespoke prices, provisioning APIs, and much more. It takes months and a lot of commitment”.  

Redefining the Status Quo

This is no longer the case — FIs are able to test real data within minutes thanks to the 1,000s of global data partners available on the Demyst platform. 

Demyst’s approach to risk management is less focused on a single score or upstream data source, but rather on maximizing flexibility and efficiency through a catalog of external data providers. 

Sign up for a free Demyst account and discover the benefits of integrating data from multiple sources through a single API.