What is Credit Box?
A credit box defines the boundaries of acceptable loan characteristics for a lender or investor. It typically includes minimum/maximum FICO scores, maximum LTV and DTI, acceptable property types and occupancy types, geographic restrictions (states), loan amount ranges, and product types. Loans that fit within the credit box are eligible for purchase or origination; loans outside the box are declined. Credit boxes can be broad (agency/GSE guidelines) or narrow (specialty lenders). Comparing a loan portfolio's characteristics to buyer credit boxes is the first step in determining marketability.
How LoanBook Uses Credit Box
LoanBook maintains a comprehensive Investor Universe with credit boxes from 100+ sources (GSEs, government, private mortgage, non-QM, consumer, SBA, CRE lenders). The matching engine compares loan characteristics against credit boxes to find eligible buyers. Credit boxes use the 48 standardized credit box fields with synonym resolution and are populated from published lender guidelines, FOIA data inference, and manual entry.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are credit boxes used in whole loan trading?
When selling a portfolio, you compare the loan characteristics against potential buyer credit boxes to identify which investors can bid. This determines your buyer universe and helps target marketing. Loans that fit many credit boxes have high marketability; loans that fit few are harder to sell.
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See Credit Box in Action
LoanBook calculates credit box and 50+ other analytics automatically for your loan portfolios.