JR TOC Review

As any online merchant knows, the past few years have seen a rapid increase in digital transactions but unfortunately, fraudsters have adapted quickly and taken advantage of this. With booming online sales, retailers strive to provide a seamless shopping experience while simultaneously recognizing legitimate customers and keeping an eye out for fraud. It’s a balancing act that becomes more perilous as transaction volumes grow. Perhaps one of the most frustrating challenges for online merchants is false declines. In fact, Aite-Novarica Group’s The E-Commerce Fraud Enigma: The Quest to Maximize Revenue While Minimizing Fraud Report found the average false decline rate is 1.16%. With over $960 billion in U.S. online sales in 2021, lost sales resulting from false declines is substantial, totaling more than $11 billion. False declines occur when a good customer is suspected of fraud and then prevented from completing a purchase. This happens when a company’s fraud prevention solution provides inadequate insight into the identity of the customer, flagging them as a potential bad actor. The result is a missed sale for the business and a frustrating transaction and experience for the customer. Merchants use a variety of tools to prevent fraud while ensuring they minimize friction during the purchase experience, but many legacy fraud solutions fail to provide the confidence needed to sufficiently assess the risk of the identity presented by the customer. As identities become more complex, Experian recognizes that identity is personal. We are committed to creating new and innovative solutions to manage this complexity, and to addressing the constantly evolving opportunities for fraud that come along with it. Our newest offering, Experian Link, is the most recent example. It allows merchants to augment their real-time payment risk decisions with a perspective that links customer identity to the credit card being presented for payment. Aite-Novarica’s report showed that nearly half of the e-commerce merchants surveyed are tolerating fraud rates between 20 and 49 basis points. Experian Link can improve that as it provides a positive match rate of 85% for major credit card brands, and when an identity is verified against a credit card, fraud rates can drop to as low as 10 basis points with no added customer friction. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, online merchants need the right tools to help them meet consumer expectations and support their growth now and in the future. Leveraging a strong identity verification solution like Experian Link in the authorization process will be critical for merchants, providing additional data that paints a more complete picture of their customer and leads to fewer false declines. For more information on how Experian Link helps businesses enhance their identity verification solutions, please visit https://www.experian.com/business/products/experian-link.

Consumers generate hundreds, if not thousands, of digital interactions every day when they do things like shop on the internet, play games, manage their finances or stream entertainment. As businesses look to differentiate their brands and create positive consumer experiences, they need to reconcile these data points. Proper reconciliation of identity leads to insightful data that helps augment the way brands market to consumers, manage risk, and deliver secure, personalized experiences. Fulfilling the promise of identity can be a challenge, though, given the massive volumes of data that these consumer interactions generate, and the need to ensure privacy-compliant use. To help companies meet this challenge, Experian introduced an integrated suite of identity solutions, products and services called Experian Identity. It combines Experian’s sophisticated information technology systems and vast accumulation of consumer data to enable businesses to engage with consumers on a more perceptive, personalized basis. This recent Global News Blog entry addresses this topic well. Experian Identity is an ideal choice for companies that need identity resolution and fraud management solutions to further strengthen their customer relationships. One example of the innovative use of identity data is how it can give people with limited-to-no credit history access to a variety of useful financial instruments. By incorporating expanded data sources that contain identity information, such as rent, utilities, telecom, and video streaming services, as well as buy now, pay later data into credit reports, consumers who are underrepresented in the current credit reporting system can provide a more comprehensive view into their ability and willingness to repay outstanding debt. Lastly, Experian Identity is laser-focused on compliance for consumer consent and control around identity. A recent advertorial in the news outlet AXIOS offers more background on how businesses can use identity data to stay relevant with their target audiences and create a positive and safe consumer experience. Click here to read more. For more information on how Experian Identity helps optimize identity solutions, visit www.experian.com/identity-solutions. To learn how making identities personal builds trust and helps organizations create improved experiences for consumers and businesses, download the Making Identities Personal white paper.

Back in October 2021, we announced our partnership with Code First Girls, who teach women to code for free and develops female talent in tech. We have shared their journey where four female students worked as paid interns with Experian while studying for their Code First Girls’ Nanodegree for the last nine months. My colleagues in the UK will be continuing the partnership with Code First Girls this year. As part of the partnership, Experian will be sponsoring four courses in Python and Data, and our employees are volunteering to co-lead these courses. Experian will also be sponsoring 10 Code First Girls’ Nanodegrees, with the aim of hiring these 10 graduates via our Software Engineering graduate programme in the UK. The four interns who recently completed their internships with us came from diverse backgrounds and introduced fresh perspectives. They've helped to drive our financial inclusion agenda by working on our United for Financial Health programme in South Africa and Italy, amongst other innovative projects. Watch the videos where our interns talked about their internship experience: Nicole Ngina, born, raised and currently in Kenya, and a recent diploma graduate of Strathmore University where she studied Business Information Technology. Betty Abate, originally from Ethiopia but grew up in the UK. Chelsi Goliath, a Computer Science student from South Africa. Kamile Sudziute, originally from Lithuania, but studied in London, where she just graduated from King’s College London with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. We are committed to developing women in tech and I’m pleased to welcome more talented young women to start their careers in tech with us. This year’s extension of our partnership with Code First Girls enables us to create a better tomorrow for more women to kickstart their careers in tech. Stay tuned for more updates on our journey with Code First Girls by following us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mental health problems remain a huge issue, so it’s essential that employers are set up to support their employees who may be struggling. Also every organisation depends on having healthy and productive employees, with valued and supported staff far more likely to perform better and achieve peak performance. At Experian we have been working hard to ensure everyone can get that support, and that we are constantly evolving and improving. That’s why I’m proud to announce that we have been recognised with a Gold Award in Mind’s sixth annual Workplace Wellbeing Index. I think this is a huge achievement as it signifies the progress we’ve already made as an organisation in recent years – ensuring mental health is embedded into our policies and practices, and demonstrating our long-term and deep commitment to our employees’ mental health. Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index is a benchmark of best policy and practice, celebrating the good work employers are doing to promote and support positive mental health, and importantly also providing key recommendations on the specific areas where there is room to improve. This award demonstrates that we are on the right track, but we won’t stop here. We’re always looking for new ways to do things and to improve as a business. We are committed to driving towards even better ways of working, where supporting the mental health of our people is a fundamental part of everyday business. Andrew is the UK & Ireland Mental Health Sponsor & Managing Director of Experian Data Quality

We welcome this week’s response by the UK Government in relation to its work on the new UK Data Strategy, and the commitment to creating a new UK Data Act.  Innovative data use has a crucial role to play as Britain takes its place on the global stage. Data has the ability to change people’s lives for the better. It can help build a stronger, smarter future, whether that is through existing products and services or by enabling new and innovative solutions to the problems people and society face today. We share the Government’s goal of using data to deliver better outcomes for people across the UK, and to supercharge its economic success.  Already today we see data doing great good in the world: it is enabling the deployment of resources from charities and Government where they are most needed; reducing the number of credit-invisible people and combatting loan sharks; preventing fraud and supporting those who fall victim to fraudsters; and delivering unique new insights that set creators and entrepreneurs on the path to their next success. Data played a transformative, positive role in people’s lives during the pandemic, and has the potential to do so much more as we look to the future.  It is crucial that data is used and managed within a trusted, privacy centric framework, and that we as industry and Government together continue to educate and empower people to understand how their data is used, and to be confident in its security. Properly-consented, properly-secured data can empower people; it can support the vulnerable; it can help expand and accelerate our economy.  We have the talent, the drive and the ambition in Britain to do all of these things. The new framework sets a foundation to enable and empower, making Britain a desirable hub for investment; a great place to work and build a career; an ideal place to begin new ventures or find funding for existing ones. With the right foundations in place, the opportunity ahead will be limited only by our imaginations. For all of these reasons, Experian welcomes the Government’s goal of making this leap forward for the UK, and we look forward to seeing the detail of the new Data Act as it is released in the coming months. 

We often share at Experian that we want to be an organisation where people are free to be their true selves and have an equal chance to succeed, a place where everyone is celebrated for bringing their whole selves to work. When our colleagues thrive, they innovate, and contribute to the future of the business. It is in this spirit we welcome you to The Power of You: 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report. Our second edition is really an evolution. For the first time, we are introducing our global DEI framework and our focus on people, clients and consumers, and the communities in which we live and work. We’re proud to be recognised as a Great Place to Work, as 90% of our colleagues agree Experian people are treated fairly regardless of their social and economic status, sexual orientation, race or gender. In this report, you’ll see examples of the efforts we’ve made over this last year including the work towards gender equity. Our target is for 40% of our senior leaders to be women by 2024. We have engagement programs to encourage women into STEM roles within the business, while the appointment of Malin Holmberg as CEO of our EMEA and Asia Pacific business alongside the promotion of Jennifer Schulz to CEO of our North America business has increased our percentage of senior female leaders. Beyond strengthening our own processes in promoting DEI, we’re partnering with organisations such as Disability:IN, Code First Girls and the National Urban League to help underserved communities gain fair and equitable access to credit and financial resources. More broadly, we are continuing with our United for Financial Health programme. So far, we’ve connected with 87 million people since 2020 and remaining on track to connect with 100 million people by 2024. We were named in Fortune’s 2021 ‘Change the World’ list for our work to improve financial health. Our aim is to be force for good. This is at the heart of our purpose exemplified by all of our 20,600 employees across 43 nations: to create a better tomorrow for consumers, our clients, our people and communities. Please find our latest DEI report in full here.