Loan Stacking
Loan stacking occurs when borrowers have multiple loans outstanding at the same time. Follow this guide to detect and prevent loan stacking by comparing applicant data in real-time.
Submit a report for every loan application
In your application, when a business or individual applies for a new loan, submit a report to Lenders API using the Submit Report endpoint. It’s important to submit early and continue to submit status updates to prevent loan stacking. If you wait until the loan application is fully processed it may be too late.
Watch for incoming events
Lenders API will post events to your server in the case of matching records. It’s important to have a webhook endpoint set up and working. When you receive a webhook event, it will include a reference to one of your previously submitted reports. With the report reference, use the Search Hits endpoint to get a list of matching external loan applications.
Look for recent reports
In the response, there will be matching reports from other clients. Each matching report will include the latest copy of metadata related to the loan application. In order to detect loan stacking, check if the reported timestamp is within the last week, and if the loan status is pending or approved.
report.reported >= (now() - 7 * 86400) && ( report.status == 'pending' || report.status == 'approved' )
Verify the matching record
It’s possible, but unlikely, that a matching report is related to a different business or individual. Each matching report will include the identifying fields that matched (see Data Masking). In general, we recommend that clients proceed with a cautious, manual process for applications that trigger loan stacking.
