Risk factor assessments on the Valiant platform
Valiant’s intelligent risk assessment engine automatically evaluates 50+ risk factors to assess business legitimacy, applicant identity, and transaction integrity throughout the quoting and application processes – filtering out potential fraud before it reaches your underwriting team.Balancing speed with security
Traditional financing workflows force a difficult choice, either slow down approvals with extensive manual reviews, or risk fraud by approving and processing applications too quickly. For finance programs serving SMBs across multiple markets and regions, this challenge is amplified by:- Volume scale – Processing thousands of applications across different regions
- Resource constraints – Limited underwriting capacity for growing loan portfolios
- Fraud evolution – Increasingly sophisticated bad actors targeting SMB lending
- Partner expectations – Program partners demanding both speed, quality and approvals
Front-loaded risk intelligence
Valiant’s risk assessment framework moves verification and fraud detection to the earliest possible stage – before applications even reach finance partners. By running 50+ automated checks as data becomes available, we:- Accelerate good applications – Fast-track clearly legitimate opportunities
- Protect partner resources – Filters out obvious fraud before underwriting review
- Provide transparent reasoning – Give underwriters context for flagged items
- Complement existing process – Supplement and accelerate existing compliance process
- Maintain flexibility – Customize risk criteria per program, market and region
Benefits
By automating early-stage risk detection, we reduce friction for legitimate businesses while protecting all stakeholders from fraud exposure. Each participant in the financing process experiences specific advantages:- Finance partners – Receive pre-screened, higher-quality finance applications with detailed risk context, allowing underwriters and compliance teams to focus on complex credit decisions rather than basic fraud detection
- Program managers – Gain visibility into fraud patterns and portfolio risk trends, enabling data-driven program optimization and proactive risk management
- Vendors and manufacturers – Experience faster approvals for legitimate transactions while building stronger relationships with customers through streamlined financing options
- Compliance teams – Maintain comprehensive audit trails and consistent risk standards across programs, simplifying regulatory reporting and risk governance
Risk factors vs. credit policy eligibility
It’s important to distinguish between Valiant’s risk factor assessments and traditional credit policy-based eligibility conditions. Risk factors evaluate potential fraud and transaction authenticity – concerns that apply universally regardless of the finance partner or specific finance product. These assessments are global for a given quote or application and focus on whether a quote or application represents legitimate business activity and poses acceptable operational risk. In contrast, credit policy eligibility conditions are finance partner-specific requirements such as minimum time in business, acceptable business structures, or industry restrictions. These criteria determine whether an applicant qualifies and is eligible for a particular loan product based on the finance partner’s risk appetite and portfolio strategy. While there may be some overlap between the two (for example, both systems might flag very recently formed businesses), pure credit policy-informed filters are considered part of product eligibility rather than risk factor assessment. Valiant’s risk factors operate independently of finance partner credit policies, ensuring consistent fraud protection and operational risk management across all programs via an additional screening stage while allowing each partner to maintain their unique underwriting standards and eligibility requirements. Risk factors are often only run if a customer is considered eligible from a credit product perspective.How it works
Our risk assessment engine operates through continuous, data-driven evaluation rather than discrete stages. As application information becomes available, whether from initial form submission, document upload, or third-party data enrichment, the engine will automatically:- Detects data changes – Monitors for new or updated information across all application fields
- Trigger data enrichment – Runs relevant data enrichment workflows
- Runs risk tests – Automatically runs applicable risk factor assessments on most current data
- Updates risk outcomes – Dynamically adjusts the overall risk assessment outcome
Important:
- Effective risk assessment requires a fully enriched quote or application record. The list outlined below assumes a fully enriched record with all required data available
- Different risk factor assessments are run at different stages of the process based on available data. Some may be run up front while others may be run as more data becomes available throughout the application process
- Data required for some assessments may not be available in some regions
- Some risk factor tests or functionality outlined below may be in development or currently on our roadmap
- For security and competitive reasons, specific test criteria, thresholds and data sources are not disclosed in public documentation
Risk categories
Our comprehensive risk factor framework is organized into four main categories, each targeting different vectors of potential fraud and business risk. This multi-layered approach ensures thorough evaluation while maintaining processing efficiency.- Business risk – digital footprint, business registration, addresses, etc.
- Contact and signer risk – identity, contact details, etc.
- Vendor quote risk – source document analysis, product basket, etc.
- Cross-category risk – corroboration of data across categories
- Business risk
- Contact and signer risk
- Vendor quote risk
- Cross-category risk
Organizational legitimacy and stability
Evaluates the authenticity, stability, and operational legitimacy of the applying business entity.Core assessment areas include:- Digital footprint analysis – Website quality, domain history, social media presence, and online reputation
- Business registration verification – Corporate filings, licensing status, tax registrations, and regulatory compliance
- Physical presence validation – Business addresses, location verification, and operational indicators
- Financial history and relationships – Vendor purchase history and program participation
- Industry and market context – Business industry risk, market presence, and competitive positioning
Why this matters
Fraudulent applications often involve shell companies, recently formed entities, or businesses with inconsistent digital presence. These tests help distinguish established, legitimate businesses from potential fraud attempts.Criteria and results
Risk factor tests are individually contained tests that assess a specific set of related data points with known risk factors with the goal of flagging key risk implications as early on in the process as possible.Test configurability
There is no one-size-fits-all solution regarding test criteria, and each test is deeply configurable to match program requirements and risk appetite. Tests are often configured on a program-by-program basis and evolve in accordance with:- Program-specific priorities (e.g., transaction-focused vs. relationship-focused lending)
- Market conditions (e.g., increased focus on business stability during economic uncertainty)
- Emerging fraud patterns (e.g., heightened document verification during periods of template fraud)
- Regulatory requirements (e.g., enhanced identity verification in certain jurisdictions)
Test archetypes
Our risk tests are built around several proven archetypes that can be combined and customized.- Acceptable values
- Value thresholds
- Date and time thresholds
- Pattern matching
- Enrichment-dependent tests
Static allow/block lists
Tests against predefined lists of acceptable or unacceptable values, typically for categorical data where clear boundaries exist.Examples include:- Shipping address category – Commercial, residential, PO Box, etc.
- Email provider type – Corporate, free or disposable email service
- Business entity type – LLC, Corporation, Partnership, Sole Proprietorship
- Phone line type – Landline, mobile, VoIP, toll-free numbers
- Industry codes – Acceptable vs. restricted industries
- Geographic regions – Approved states/countries/territories
Test results
Test results and outcomes are communicated using a simple traffic-light style system:- ✅ Pass – Test passed with acceptable result, team member or customer may proceed
- ⚠️ Warning – Test passed but with a boundary or uncertain result, may trigger additional verification steps, including document requests, manual review, or enhanced monitoring
- 🚩 Fail – Test failed, team member or customer will be blocked from progressing in the UI
- ℹ️ Info – Test was run, but either data not available or the result indeterminate – i.e., no data does not equate to a fail as in some other tests
Program Customization:All test rules (i.e., thresholds, limits, acceptable values, etc.) and outcomes (i.e., what constitutes a pass, warning or fail) can be customized on a program-by-program basis by Valiant as per preference or requirement from program stakeholders.For example, one program may allow goods being shipped to residential shipping addresses to be funded (pass) while another may require additional documentation (warning) and another may not allow it (fail).
Valiant risk factor test examples
The below describes a range of example tests that we run and are evaluated as data becomes available during quoting and application workflows on the Valiant platform.Business risk factors
- Web domain
- Website content
- Business registration
- Business addresses
- Vendor history
- Program history
- Domain resolves and has identifiable name servers
- Domain has been registered for an acceptable period
- Domain is registered by same entity as related business registration
- Domain is registered at reputable registrar
- Domain expiry is within an acceptable period
- Domain is linked to known business apps and services
Contact and signer risk factors
- Email address
- Phone number
- Identity
- Email address is deliverable
- Email address provider type is acceptable (free, disposable, etc.)
- Email address aligns with business web domain
- Email address is likely used for business activity
Quote risk factors
- Quote documentation
- Product basket
- Shipping address
- Quote PDF is a valid PDF document and complies with PDF spec
- Quote PDF has not been modified since creation
- Quote PDF metadata aligns with expected values for given program
- Quote PDF matches format and structure of known and trusted training data