What is Roll rate?
Risk
The roll rate is the percentage of accounts that move from one delinquency bucket to the next over a period (for example, from current to early delinquency, or from 30 to 60 days past due). It measures how fast a portfolio deteriorates, with more precision than the overall delinquency rate.
Why it matters
Overall delinquency is a snapshot; the roll rate is the motion. Seeing how many accounts 'roll' from one past-due bucket to the next lets you anticipate deterioration and adjust origination or collections policies before delinquency spikes.
- Anticipates deterioration, doesn't just confirm it.
- Compares vintages and segments on the same scale.
- Feeds the decision engine's rules.
Common questions
How is it different from the delinquency rate?+
The delinquency rate measures how much of the portfolio is past due today; the roll rate measures what share advances from one past-due bucket to the next. It's an earlier signal: it moves before overall delinquency and gives room to react in time.
Related terms
Affordability
Affordability is how much a person can put toward loan installments without compromising essential expenses. It is estimated from their income and existing obligations, and it defines the maximum reasonable amount to grant.
Alternative data
Alternative data are non-traditional information sources —transactional behavior, open banking, device data, telco or utilities— that complement the credit bureau to assess applicants with little or no history. They make it possible to lend to populations traditional scoring can't reach.
Champion/Challenger testing
Champion/Challenger is a technique for improving credit policies by routing a share of traffic to an alternative policy (the challenger) and comparing its performance against the one in production (the champion). It lets teams validate changes on real data at controlled risk before adopting them.
Back to the full glossary.
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