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Ernst & Young audit provides Baker Hill® products with SSAE16 SOC 2 and 3 certification Experian®, the leading global information services company, announced that the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts’ (AICPA) has awarded the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 and 3 level certification (formerly SAS 70 reports) for its Baker Hill® products — Baker Hill Advisor® and Baker Hill Origination®. These are the highest levels of certification that a company can receive from the AICPA. “We are very pleased to announce that Experian has received the esteemed AICPA SOC 2 and 3 level certification for the security, availability and confidentiality of our Baker Hill products,” said Charles Chung, president of Experian Decision Analytics. “Achieving certification offers important validation that Experian is deploying a sound approach to hosting our clients’ data that is consistent with the AICPA standards.” The SOC 2 and 3 certification assures Experian clients using the Baker Hill products the highest level of: Security — protection against unauthorized access (both physical and logical) Availability — available for operation and use as committed or agreed Confidentiality — information designated as confidential is protected as committed or agreed Baker Hill Advisor is a comprehensive business process service within Experian Decision Analytics designed to help financial institutions manage and enhance their profitability by integrating sales, portfolio and customer management so they can assess each relationship in their portfolio and create active client-focused strategies designed to increase profitability. Baker Hill Origination helps financial institutions to automate their origination and underwriting processes. More than 220 financial institutions nationwide — including more than 35 of the top 150 financial institutions — use the Baker Hill Origination products.

Over the years, one of the lessons that I’ve learned is, to prepare for the future you must understand the past. The same lesson can and should be applied to the automotive industry. As manufacturers, aftermarket companies and retailers continue to move their businesses into 2014 and beyond, it is always beneficial to take a moment and assess what happened in years past. For example, according to Experian Automotive’s Quarterly Report: A look back at the 2013 automotive market share trends, the overall automotive market decreased slightly, with approximately 900,000 vehicles taken off the road from a year ago. Additionally, there were 98 million vehicles within the aftermarket “sweet spot” (vehicles between model years 2002-2008), which means a good number of opportunities (vehicles out of warranty) are available for aftermarket companies. However, with a shortage of model year 2009 vehicles due to low sales volumes, we can expect this number to decrease next year. Register for quarterly updates: http://ex.pn/1lTNnTw Findings from the report also showed that total vehicle sales were up in 2013, increasing by nearly 3 percent from a year ago. Furthermore, new vehicles sales continued to increase its share of total sales, reaching 28 percent of vehicles registered in 2013, up 6 percent from last year. From a regional perspective, while all regions saw an increase in vehicles sales compared to last year, the Western region experienced the strongest growth, improving by more than 4 percent. Both the Southern and Northeast regions saw a 2.6 percent growth rate in sales, while the Midwest saw a 2.3 percent improvement. Additionally, General Motors emerged as the manufacturer of choice when it came to new vehicle purchases in the Midwest and Southern regions, while Toyota was the top manufacturer in the Western and Northeast areas. Other findings from the report include: • The top three states for hybrid vehicles were California (7.9 percent of all state registrations), Oregon (7 percent of all state registrations) and District of Columbia (6.9 percent of all state registrations) • Top five vehicle segments in the United States made up nearly 50 percent of all vehicles on the road in 2013 • In 2013, the average age of vehicles on the road was 10.4 years, remaining flat from last year • General Motors had the highest market share in 2013 at 17.9 percent, followed by Ford (15.6 percent) and Toyota (14.4 percent) • The Midwest was the only region to have domestic brands make up a larger percentage of its new vehicle registrations (62 percent); South (48 percent); Northeast (39.5 percent); West (38.4 percent)

Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insight and targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing, today announced the release of The 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report, the marketing industry’s go-to resource, now in its sixth year, for key industry benchmarks, consumer insights and data. In addition to benchmark and trend data, the 2014 edition features the results of a new cross-channel marketing survey conducted by Experian Marketing Services in more than 20 countries throughout Europe, North America and Asia. According to its results, the survey shows that 80 percent of marketers plan to run cross-channel marketing campaigns in 2014 and more than half of marketers plan to integrate their marketing campaigns across four or more different channels. “This is the year in which marketers move beyond being creative brand managers and invest in the technologies, the tools and the people necessary to make real, cross-channel interactions happen,” said Ashley Johnston, senior vice president, global marketing, Experian Marketing Services. “In today’s world, consumers are seamlessly transitioning between various devices and channels. Marketers need to understand how best to communicate with their customers through these channels to provide a relevant and personal experience for those customers. The 2014 Digital Marketer provides recent, actionable data to help marketers better formulate those seamless interactions and evolve their campaign strategies to connect with their customers.” Survey results from throughout the 2014 Digital Marketer featured key findings, including: • Only 28 percent of marketers work on teams that are integrated fully. The majority of marketers work on teams that are organized by marketing channel or somewhat integrated. • Marketers with fully integrated teams cite budget and understanding customer behavior as their primary barriers to cross-channel marketing. However, one in five marketers from integrated teams still cite organizational structural as a top barrier. • Sixty-one percent of marketing leaders cite collecting and managing data as a top business challenge. • Thirty-three percent of marketers cite linkage, or no single customer view, as a leading barrier to cross-channel marketing. The 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report addresses key consumer trends and digital marketing tactics, providing suggestions for ways brands should best employ technology, data and insights to engage consumers and meet their financial goals. The 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report is available via a free download at http://ex.pn/PpijOx.