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It’s my great pleasure to announce that, for the second successive year, Experian has been certified as a ‘Top Employer’ by the Top Employers Institute. The annual research programme recognises leading employers around the world. Awarding only those that provide the kind of conditions where their employees can develop, both professionally and personally, nurturing and developing talent throughout all levels of the organisation. Being recognised as a Top Employer two years in a row is a significant achievement, but I am also aware that the journey doesn’t end here. This isn’t the time to take our foot off the pedal. We will continue to develop our working culture, listening to feedback from our team and pushing the boundaries to create the best possible working environment for our people. After our initial recognition in 2017, we set ourselves a challenge to not only retain our Top Employer status this year, but also to improve our overall performance against the institute’s tough certification criteria. It’s down to the ongoing dedication of our UK team that we have managed to achieve this challenging objective. Experian is all about its people. We are committed to providing a working environment that people love, giving them access to the best training, the greatest opportunities and the latest tools – everything they need to progress their career. This award demonstrates that we are clearly on the right path, but we won’t stop here. We’re always looking for new ways to do things and to improve as a business. So by listening to our people and actively encouraging new ideas, together we will continue developing Experian as an outstanding place to work.

Real stories about helping people, businesses and society as told by Experian employees around the world. It’s a simple concept and, as the first year of our #ExperianStories series showed, a powerful one as well. What began as a call to action in support of our global brand refresh last January has become an employee-driven chronicle of our ongoing journey as a company. These stories tell how employees are helping more people access the financial services they need, helping them protect their identities, and how we are making a difference in our communities. A new Experian story is added here to the Experian Global News Blog site every few weeks and shared via social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Below is a sampling from the more than 40 #ExperianStories employees have contributed so far: In India, we shared how we are using biometrics to help people with thin credit files, including those in rural areas with little or no formal identification, to prove their identities and secure the loans they need. In the U.K., one of our data scientists told how her own educational and professional journey gave her the passion to help more girls explore a STEM education. As she puts it, “No one should have to automatically rule them out of a career path based on gender.” In Brazil, we are addressing fraud by working with financial technology (fintech) organizations, including online lenders, to overcome the high fraud rate in Brazil to “help the right people to get the money they need at a fair price, faster.” It’s been a year since we started sharing our #ExperianStories and we’ve reached 20 million people so far. Given what our company is doing and the innovative approaches to solving society’s problems, this second year promises to be every bit as informative and impactful. And beyond the stories themselves, I am equally proud of how our employees are making a difference and how they work every single day to use data, analytics and technology to help improve lives around the world. Stories matter. Our employees matter. And the work they are doing makes a difference. I hope you continue to join us on our #ExperianStories journey.

This morning on my way into the office, I made my usual stop for coffee. Just like every other day, the barista greeted me by name and my usual drink was being made before I got to the counter. Doesn’t it feel nice when you’re recognized? The same holds true when we interact online. We want to be recognized when we transact online, because recognition helps to stimulate trust. And trust is what makes all of us feel safe and protected. New research from our Global Fraud and Identity Report demonstrates that customer recognition also plays a large role in indicators of fraud. Most of the 500 business executives in 11 countries that we interviewed across the globe, said that if they were certain about a customer’s identity, the need for fraud risk mitigation would be reduced. One of the trickiest components to fraud detection, is finding the fine line between turning away good customers and letting the fraudsters slip through. Our global research revealed that most businesses tend to demonstrate suspicion when it comes to preventing fraud, following a route of detection rather than permission or trust. In fact, 71 percent of businesses know that they deny more transactions than they should. The end result isn’t just a loss of sales, but it also may very likely damage the lifetime value of that customer. Business leaders agree that if they were more precise in identifying the customer and avoiding denial of real transactions, they would see an increase in revenue. In addition, the report confirmed what we all already know – as consumers, we expect the companies we do business with to protect us. We surveyed 5,500 people in 11 countries, and many said they equate visual signs of security and the barriers they encounter when accessing their accounts to mean the transaction is more secure. Nearly 7 out of every 10 people like the security protocols when they transact online because it makes them feel protected. As customers, we want to believe that banks and retailers are doing everything they can to protect and secure our online transactions. Our study also found that 72 percent of businesses say fraud is a growing concern, with online fraud continuing to be a top concern across the globe. One of out every 10 businesses are experiencing the same or more fraudulent losses online compared to a year ago. Fraud is always evolving and fraudsters are becoming more resourceful than ever before. And while there is no silver bullet, and good modern fraud detection requires multiple fraud detection strategies, better customer recognition could make an immediate difference. Simply put, the better you recognize the customer, the better you can recognize fraud. Get a copy of the complete Global Fraud and Identity Report