The Dun & Bradstreet Delinquency Predictor (DP) is an assessment tool to evaluate credit risk. It is designed to predict the likelihood that a company will pay its bills in a severely delinquent manner (90 days or more past terms), obtain legal relief from creditors, or cease operations without paying all creditors in full over the next 12 months. The DP is a ranking that does a comparison of businesses within the DNB global database. It has 3 different calculations that can reflect a company risk ranking: a “score,” a “percentile,” and a “class.”

D&B Delinquency Predictor Score

Delinquency Predictor Scores range from 101 – 670, where 101 represents businesses that have the highest risk of severe delinquency, and 670 represents businesses with the lowest risk of severe delinquency. This score provides a direct relationship between the score and the level of risk.

D&B Delinquency Predictor Percentile

The Delinquency Predictor Percentile ranges from 1 – 100, where 1 reflects businesses that have the highest chance of severe delinquency, and 100 reflects businesses with the lowest probability of delinquency. This Percentile shows where a company falls compared to all businesses in the Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud, it allows customers to manage or order their portfolios from highest to lowest risk of severe delinquency.

D&B Delinquency Predictor Risk Class

The Risk Class places businesses into one of five distinct risk groups, numbered 1 – 5, where a one (1) represents businesses that have the lowest potential for severe delinquency, and a five (5) represents businesses with the highest potential for severe delinquency. Having a class ranking allows customers the ability to quickly segment their new and existing accounts into varied risk groups to determine the best course of action moving forward.

Businesses without Delinquency Predictor Scores

Out of about 30 million US Based firms around 90% would have the DP score, but there are some scenarios where businesses are excluded. Some reasons why a delinquency predictor score would not reflect on a firm’s profile:

• Business credit profiles that are missing an address or have an address that is not valid
• Business credit profiles that show a foreign address as the headquarters
• Businesses that requested a D-U-N-S number be generated on themselves, but for whom D&B has not yet investigated and verified the company
• Businesses that are in financial distress or on the verge of business failure, which D&B designates as “Business Deterioration” or “Higher Risk”

Business Deterioration and Higher Risk Designations

According to D&B, the “Business Deterioration” designation applies to businesses “showing signs of financial distress, such as existing or imminent business failure or operating difficulty as reviewed and confirmed by Dun & Bradstreet analysts.” A business designated as “Higher Risk” is one which displays “characteristics of higher risk, either intentionally as in an overbuy, or may be higher risk due to other business factors.”

What to Do If Your Business Has a Poor Delinquency Predictor Score

If your business is struggling due to your DP Score or other business credit issues, we can help. Call us at 914-524-8300 or fill out the form on this page for a free consultation with a certified credit expert and start getting your business credit back on track.