Greater transparency in buy now, pay later activity is key to helping consumers build their credit histories and supporting responsible lending.
Experian North AmericaScott Brown, Group President, Financial Services
Affirm plans to report all pay-over-time loan products issued from April 1, 2025, and beyond, including Pay-in-4. The move will help drive greater transparency into the buy now, pay later market while helping consumers build their credit histories over time.
Read Moreio55 Button 2- Learn more Primary button Secondary button Related Posts
Today, we stand at the forefront of a digital revolution that is reshaping the financial services industry. And, against this backdrop, financial institutions are at vastly different levels of maturity; the world’s biggest banks are managing large-scale infrastructure migrations and making significant investments in AI while regional banks and credit unions are putting plans in place for modernization strategies, and fintechs are purpose-built and cloud native. To explore this more, I recently had the privilege of attending the annual Reuters NEXT live event in New York City. The event gathers globally recognized leaders across business, finance, technology, and government to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues. On the World Stage, I joined Del Irani, a talented anchor and broadcast journalist, to discuss the future of lending and the pivotal role of data and AI in building a more inclusive financial system. Improving financial access Our discussion highlighted the lack of access to traditional financial systems, and the impact it has on nearly 100 million people in North America alone. Globally, the problem affects over one billion people. These people, who are credit invisible, unscoreable, or have subprime credit scores, are unable to secure everyday financial products that many of us take for granted. What many don’t realize is, this is not a fringe subset of the population. Most of us, myself included, know someone who has faced the challenges of financial exclusion. Everyday Americans, including young people who are just starting out, new immigrants and people from diverse communities, often lack access to mainstream financial products. We discussed how traditional lending has a limited view of a consumer. Like looking through a keyhole, the lender’s understanding of the person in view is often incomplete and obstructed. However, with expanded data, technology, and advanced analytics, there is an opportunity to better understand the whole person, and as a result have a more inclusive financial system. At Experian, we have a unique ability to connect the power of traditional credit with alternative data, bringing a more holistic understanding of consumers and their behaviors. We are dedicated to leveraging our rich history in data and our expertise in technology to create the future of credit and ultimately bring financial power to everyone. The future of lending After spending two days with over 700 industry leaders from around the world, one thing is abundantly clear: much like the early days of the internet, today, we are at the cutting-edge of a technical revolution. Reflecting on my time at Reuters NEXT, I am particularly excited by the collective commitment to drive innovative, and smarter ways of working. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of how data and technology can transform financial services, and Experian is positioned to play a significant role. As we look to the future, I am excited about the ways we will create new opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.
The advertising ecosystem has seen significant transformation over the past few years, with increased privacy regulation, changes in available signals, and the rise of channels like connected TV and retail media. These changes are impacting the way that consumers interact with brands and how brands understand and continue to deliver relevant messages to consumers with precision. Experian has been helping marketers navigate these changes, and as a result, our marketing data and identity solutions underpin much of today’s advertising industry. We’re committed to empowering marketers and agencies to understand and reach their target audiences, across all channels. Today, we are excited to announce our acquisition of Audigent—a leading data and activation platform in the advertising industry. With Audigent’s combination of first-party publisher data, inventory and deep supply-side distribution relationships, publishers, big and small, can empower marketers to better understand their customers, expand the reach of their target audiences and activate those audiences across the most impactful inventory. I am excited to bring together Audigent’s supply-side network as a natural extension to our existing demand-side capabilities. Audigent’s ability to combine inventory with targeted audiences using first-party, third-party and contextual signals provides the best of all worlds, allowing marketers to deliver campaigns centered on consumer choices, preferences, and behaviors. The addition of Audigent further strengthens our strategy to be the premier independent provider of marketing data and identity, ultimately creating more relevant experiences for consumers. To learn more about Experian and Audigent, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/ and https://audigent.com/.
Thanks to the new online tools and services found at SSA.gov, you no longer have to wait on the phone or in line at the Social Security Administration (SSA) to access your benefits. Today, vital financial information such as your recorded earnings; social security benefits (or expected benefits), and disability and survivor benefits are instantly accessible online. The SSA recently announced the online “My Social Security” account, a tool that provides access to benefit verification letters and statements. Signing up for an account is easy, free and secure. Simply visit SocialSecurity.gov/myaccount to create a unique username and password. You will then be asked a series of questions provided by Experian to verify your identity and ensure secure access to your account. At this point, your account is fully set up and you can check your information as many times as you want, free of charge. This is important because, much like balancing your checkbook, regularly checking your online social security account is key to making informed financial decisions. Since its announcement, thousands of people a day have been checking their online account. Take charge of your financial planning and create an online “My Social Security” account to check your statement today. Photo: Shutterstock
Email marketing continues to be the hub and driving force in cross-channel integration as consumers are becoming more vocal and more demanding with what they expect from their favorite brands. Today, Experian Marketing Services released findings from its email market survey that addresses acquisition and engagement tactics email marketers use in tackling these challenges head-on. Email strategies often act as connectors to Website, mobile, social and in-store channels. To provide deeper industry insight and help marketers better understand how leading brands are using specific email marketing tactics, Experian Marketing Services surveyed email marketers across eight verticals about their email-marketing initiatives, including their strategies for subscriber acquisition, mobile and social marketing, testing and creative design. “We are seeing more email marketers testing new engagement strategies to expand their reach into other marketing channels,” said Peter DeNunzio, general manager at Experian Marketing Services’ CheetahMail. “Insights from this market study not only confirm that email is still a very strong performer, but it is also a spearhead in the progression towards true cross-channel optimization.” Fifty-three percent of respondents represent multichannel retailers — companies that have both brick-and-mortar stores and ecommerce sites. These survey results provide benchmarks on which marketers can gauge their own programs, or use as a factor when deciding to implement new tactics. Key insights in this study include: 44 percent of total opens occur on mobile devices 52 percent of marketers have used animated gifs in their email campaigns Marketers are seeing strong survey completion rates, regardless of offer Email is still a strong performer as a generator of both Website traffic and revenue Email marketers are testing subject lines and creative more than any other factors 78 percent of brands use sales associates to collect email addresses Download the study here and receive deeper insight on strategies marketers are using for subscriber acquisition and engagement. Photo: Shutterstock
In today’s ultra competitive world, every organization is doing what it can to not only reach new customers, but, some could argue more importantly, to hold on to the ones they already have. In the recently released Loyalty and Market Trends Report by Experian Automotive, we looked at Automotive Loyalty at the brand, model and corporate level to see which auto makers were the most successful at keeping their customers coming back for more. Drum roll please … our analysis found that Ford took the top spot in Brand Loyalty* overall and that the Ford Fusion and the Ford Flex took the top two spots for brand loyalty at the model level during Q3 2012 (surpassing the Q2 2012 model loyalty leader Chevrolet Sonic). “Ford continues to perform exceptionally well in brand loyalty, with a range of products that are getting customers back to the showroom again and again,” said Jeffrey Anderson, director of consulting and analytics for Experian Automotive. “Loyal customers provide a ready-made source of sales and constitute an important element of maintaining or expanding market share and profitability.” Overall, Ford had seven models in the top 10 for brand loyalty. Other Ford models in the top 10 included the Ford Edge, Ford Five Hundred, Ford Fiesta, Ford Escape and Ford Focus. The other top 10 finishers include the Chevrolet Sonic, Kia Forte and Cadillac DTS. When looking at the overall brand level (or when the owner of a certain brand returned to market to buy the same brand of car regardless of the model), the analysis found that Ford and Toyota maintained the top two spots, and Kia and Hyundai moved into the third and fourth positions, surpassing Honda. In regards to Corporate loyalty, Toyota, GM and Ford hold the top three spots, with Hyundai, Honda, Chrysler, Subaru, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen rounding out the top ten. The full report also highlighted several other areas of the Auto industry including registration trends, market share shifts and changes in the average vehicle age. All of this information will be presented in a free webinar on Jan. 23 at 11 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Central/2 p.m. Eastern. If you would like to attend the event, please visit www.ExperianAutomotive.com to register. Experian Automotive also will be tweeting highlights from the report during the Webinar on Twitter @Experian_Auto using #EXPAuto. If you can’t make the live event, a recording will be available on the site for download. *To measure loyalty, we looked at vehicle owners and their subsequent vehicle purchase. For example, if you owned an Acura, then purchased a Honda, you would be considered Corporate Loyal, but not Brand Loyal. To be Brand Loyal, you need to buy another Acura. Photo: Shutterstock
In this article…
