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Underwriters

Definition of 'Underwriters'

In credit, the people who subjectively assess your application. They will examine the risk involved with lending to you, and whether they are willing to accept this level of risk before granting or declining your credit application. They also ‘price for risk’ so you may be offered a higher interest rate than the typical APR if your application is deemed to be more risky than the average. Many lenders now asses risk by an automated ‘credit scoring’ procedure, but several lenders still manually examine all new applications in order to make a lending decision.

An underwriter will look at the prospective customer’s creditworthiness (credit report or credit score) to see how well they have managed credit in the past, as well as the lender’s capacity to repay the loan. When looking at the customer’s ability to repay the loan, income details, stability of income or employment and the current level of indebtedness will be considered. In the case of secured loans or mortgages, the value of the property, or collateral will also be examined and a valuation of the property is generally required before a mortgage is granted.

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