COSTA MESA, Calif. — and NEW YORK — As the initial set of deadlines for the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s current expected credit loss model approaches, Experian and Oliver Wyman have joined forces to help financial institutions adhere their loan portfolios to the new guidelines, the companies announced.

“Financial institutions across the board feel unprepared and overwhelmed with the new accounting standards on the horizon — in fact, many lack the historical data and technology required to meet the new guidelines,” said Robert Boxberger, Experian’s North American president of decision analytics. “Our collaboration with Oliver Wyman is designed to streamline the road to compliance – but more importantly, enables lenders of all sizes to continue to properly assess their portfolios and help borrowers secure affordable access to credit.”

Delivered through Experian’s Ascend Technology Platform, Ascend CECL Forecaster is billed as a user-friendly web-based application that combines Experian’s vast loan-level data and Premier Attributes, third-party macroeconomic data, valuation data, and Oliver Wyman’s proprietary CECL modeling methodology to accurately calculate potential losses over the life of a loan.

“Oftentimes financial institutions need to ask the question, ‘Do I build or buy?’ The former tends to require significant cost, time, and resources, such as data and technology,” said Anshul Verma, who leads the CECL product development at Oliver Wyman. “Ascend CECL Forecaster dramatically reduces the need for additional resources and consolidates necessary data and advanced technology under one umbrella, and ensures the capability remains world class as the regulatory requirements or business needs evolve. Large financial institutions with an existing CECL solution will also find immense value in having an independent tool as the benchmark to provide added comfort in results given the complexity and scrutiny involved.”