With the rapid development of fintech, the need for dynamic credit risk evaluation is becoming increasingly important. While previous studies on credit scoring have mostly focused on single-period loan default prediction, we call for a new avenue—multiperiod default prediction (MPDP)—to depict risk profiles over time. To address the challenges raised by MPDP, such as monotonic default probability prediction and complex relationship accommodation, we propose a novel approach, hybrid and collective scoring (HACS). We design a hybrid modeling strategy to predict whether and when a borrower will default separately through a default discrimination model and a default time estimation model, respectively, and synthesize them through a probabilistic framework. To accommodate various possible patterns of default time and measure the distribution of default probability over successive time intervals, we propose a joint default modeling method to train the default time estimation model. Empirical evaluations at the model (time-to-default prediction performance and discrimination performance) and mechanism (identifiability and discriminability) levels, as well as impact analyses at the application (granting performance and profitability performance) level, show that HACS outperforms the benchmarked survival analysis and multilabel learning methods on all fronts. It can more accurately predict time-to-default and provide financial institutions and investors better decision-support in granting loans and selecting loan portfolios.

Practice- and policy-oriented abstract for “Research Spotlights” Although enjoying rapid development, online lending also endures some unusual risk, that is, platform risk. We address a new problem at the macro platform level, platform risk evaluation, and explore types of information and methods that are effective in predicting platform risk. We identify four types of information, that is, platform characteristic, risk management, commercial competition, and online word of mouth, and examine their utilities, separately and jointly, in predicting platform risk. We also propose the use of survival analysis, especially the mixture survival model, in predicting whether and when a platform will default. We carry out a cross-stage analysis using data crawled from two leading web portals for online lending in China with the two stages separated by the recent dramatic policy intervention. The results reveal the differences among the four identified factors in terms of predictive utility, the heterogeneity between the two types of default platforms, and differences between the start-up and stable periods of platform development. Based on the results, we derive some insights and examine the cross-stage changes and commonalities. We provide both lessons learned from the past and practical implications for market managers and lenders in the current online lending market.