State of the economy report - February 2025

Loan loss analysis is an effective way for lending institutions to drive smarter business decisions by identifying loans that have been lost, where they’ve been booked, their key characteristics, and how they’ve performed.

With loan loss analysis, you can gain visibility into: 

• What type of financial institution did that applicant book with (bank, credit union, finance company, etc.)? 
  
• What was the average loan amount, and were others offering more or less? 
  
• What was the estimated interest rate, and how did it compare to yours? 
  
• What was the loan term length? 
  
• What was the average risk score? 

Accessing this information can help your organization validate your lending policies or find out where you can make adjustments to remain competitive in the market and win more business.

With the recent Fed announcement and fewer interest rate cuts on the horizon, it’s time to posture your organization more defensively. Where to start? A portfolio management activity that is often overlooked is the accuracy behind classifying fraud and credit risk.

Join our experts for an insightful webinar where they’ll review:

• The state of the Credit Card industry
• The value of performing lookback reviews – beyond accuracy
• Credit tools to help your portfolio management strategies

In our Q1 Lending Conditions Chartbook, we break down the latest economic trends and dive deep into credit conditions across products and regions.

Insights include:

• The labor market appears on decent footing but there are signs of slowing.
• Credit growth remains subdued and is running below its pre-pandemic average as financial institutions maintain tight lending standards and interest rates remain elevated.
• Looking at origination activity, there has been a meaningful pickup among fintechs and in unsecured personal loans.

This week’s Commercial Pulse Report from Experian reveals critical shifts in the economy for small businesses. Inflation eased slightly to 2.8%, and the Small Business Index ticked up to 41.5—signs of stabilization. But rising financial fraud remains a major concern. Also:

🔒 70% increase in fraud since the pandemic

🧠 $40B in projected losses from AI-driven scams by 2027

📊 46% of SMB loan applications showed signs of first-party fraud

Lenders are responding with AI-powered analytics and cross-industry collaboration to stay ahead of these threats.

Check out the full report to see how these trends could impact your strategy!

Subscribe to Commercial Pulse Report