Loan inquiries

The loan inquiries feature provides the visibility into a merchant’s previous loan application activity across the Ocrolus network — available in both the Dashboard and through the API.

It gives underwriters and risk teams visibility into a merchant’s prior loan application activity across the Ocrolus network, enabling them to incorporate behavioral insights directly into credit decisioning.

Using loan inquiries for underwriting

This feature helps underwriters:

• Identify application frequency and recency: Understand how often and how recently a merchant has applied for credit.
• Detect loan stacking or high-velocity borrowing: Spot merchants with multiple recent applications across different lenders.
• Assess urgency or credit shopping: Evaluate how frequently a merchant seeks funding to gauge borrowing intent and behavior.
• Validate merchant longevity: Use the First Application Seen field as a proxy for the merchant’s time in business.
• Streamline workflow: Access behavioral context directly within the Dashboard or via API—without relying on external systems or manual checks.

Frequent or overlapping applications may signal credit stress, stacking risk, or aggressive borrowing behavior, while a longer application history can indicate an established business with greater lending stability. By combining application frequency, recency, and tenure, underwriters can form a more complete picture of a merchant’s financial behavior and creditworthiness.

Loan Inquiries in the Dashboard

In the Ocrolus Dashboard, Loan Inquiries appears as a dedicated section when reviewing a Book.
It includes three core components:

• Top bar: Displays merchant details and key signals.
• Application velocity table: Shows how frequently the merchant has applied for loans over time.
• Loan inquiries table: Lists detailed application history across the Ocrolus network.

This visual representation allows underwriters to quickly assess borrower patterns and make more informed decisions within their existing review process.

Top bar - merchant details and key signals

At the top of the section, a summary of key behavioral metrics for the merchant is displayed to provide a top-level view at a glance.

Fields included:

• Applicant Name: Derived from the account holder name in the bank statement.
• First Application Seen by Ocrolus: The earliest application timestamp ever recorded for the merchant.
• Most Recent Application: The most recent application timestamp Ocrolus has received prior to the current Book.
• Applications in Last 365 Days: Total number of applications submitted in the trailing 12-month period.

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Tip

Use this section to quickly assess the merchant’s longevity and recency before reviewing full application details.

Application velocity table

This table summarizes how many times a merchant has applied for credit within defined trailing time windows. All counts are calculated as of the Book creation timestamp.

Loan inquiries table

This table provides a chronological record of all prior applications Ocrolus has received for the same merchant up to the current Book’s creation date.

Table features:

• Grouped by Month: Applications are organized into collapsible sections (e.g., September 2025 – 5 applications).
• Timestamps: Each row includes the exact submission time in 24-hour format (HH:MM).
• Descending Order: Most recent months appear first.
• Expandable Rows: Clicking a month reveals all applications submitted during that period.

Loan Inquiries via API

Through the Book Summary API, you can programmatically retrieve a merchant’s loan application history for integration into automated decisioning systems.

The API delivers the same insights available in the Dashboard, including application velocity, inquiry timestamps, and lending partner activity in a structured JSON format.

This enables you to:

• Integrate behavioral risk insights directly into credit decision models.
• Run bulk or automated checks for faster loan processing.
• Maintain consistent visibility across both API and Dashboard workflows.

Key fields

• smb_entity_name: Merchant name derived from account holder data.
• total_applications: Total number of applications Ocrolus has seen for the merchant up to this Book’s creation.
• application_history: List of all prior application timestamps.
• velocity: Application counts within trailing windows (30–365 days).

{
  "book_uuid": "9b32df8e-12a1-43a4-8f66-9f4d5c52a3b7",
  "loan_inquiries": {
    "smb_entity_name": "Green Valley Landscaping",
    "total_applications": 3,
    "application_history": [
      { "created_ts": "2025-10-10T12:00:00Z" },
      { "created_ts": "2025-09-25T09:30:00Z" },
      { "created_ts": "2025-08-01T14:15:00Z" }
    ],
    "velocity": {
      "30_day_count": 2,
      "60_day_count": 2,
      "90_day_count": 3,
      "180_day_count": 3,
      "270_day_count": 3,
      "365_day_count": 3
    }
  }
}

To learn more, see the Book Summary API documentation page.