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.
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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/.
At Experian, we are proud to have a culture where our teammates can bring their whole selves to work. Perhaps no one exemplifies that spirit as much as our newest United for Financial Health partner, pop artist Jake Wesley Rogers. Jake is debuting a two-part Financial Glow Up video series across his social media channels to raise financial health awareness. Known for his bold style in music, fashion and expression, Jake is lauded as a queer storyteller through a universal lens and will soon take his talents on the road, as the opening act for Panic! At The Disco’s tour this fall. His new videos are a creative and intimate look inside the financial aspects of his career. He takes us along as he prepares for his upcoming tour, highlighting how managing everyday financial decisions, like using Experian Go, can empower consumers. Our partnership with Jake is the latest in a trio of new United for Financial Health partnerships focused on the LGBTQ+ community. Last month, we announced our support for Born This Way Foundation and its Channel Kindness, and we’re excited Jake is joining our efforts with another new Experian partner, True Colors United which aims to end homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth. Earlier this year, we announced a process to help transgender and non-binary consumers change their name on their Experian credit report without losing their credit and financial history. During Pride Month, our weekly Twitter #CreditChat addresses important financial topics such as Financial Tips for Same Sex Couples and the LGBTQ+ Community. To learn more about Experian’s commitment to financial empowerment for all, check out The Power of You: 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report. You can catch the first of Jake’s new Financial Glow Up videos on his Instagram and TikTok, and by searching #JWRExperian on those channels.
In my role as Chief Sustainability Officer at Experian, I often hear from communities that feel that they’re not seen or heard. That they’re marginalized. I’m proud that our United for Financial Health (UFH) program can be a global catalyst towards financial inclusion. This is the kind of work UFH is supporting with two new partners: Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) and True Colors United. Founded by Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta, Born This Way Foundation supports youth mental health and created Channel Kindness, a digital storytelling platform. Experian is proud to support an expansion of Channel Kindness, which will be a safe space for young people to reflect on significant financial days throughout the year such as college graduation, tax day and a #BeKind21 Campaign event focusing on the role kindness plays in a person’s financial wellness. True Colors United was founded by Cyndi Lauper, and aims to end homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth. We will collaborate with them to create financial literacy resources to help this “invisible” community overcome barriers to fair and equitable access to credit and financial tools. These new partnerships are just a couple examples of our support for the LGBTQ+ community. Earlier this year, we achieved a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in the U.S., making Experian a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality for the fourth consecutive year. We also received a Silver Award from Stonewall for our commitment to inclusion of LGBTQ people in the workplace. We provide a process to assist trans and non-binary consumers with name changes to their Experian credit reports. During Pride Month, our weekly Twitter #Creditchat addressed important financial topics such as Financial Tips for Same Sex Couples and the LGBTQ+ Community. We look forward to sharing stories from Channel Kindness and the resources from True Colors United. To learn more about Experian’s commitment to financial empowerment for all, check out The Power of You: 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report.
During Disability Pride Month, we are especially proud and hopeful by our most recent honor: Experian earned a score of 100 out of a possible 100 in the Disability Equality Index® (DEI). The DEI is the world’s most comprehensive benchmarking tool for the Fortune 1000 and Am Law 2001 to measure disability workplace inclusion against competitors. Several of our colleagues were on hand at the recent 2022 Disabilty:IN Conference to pick up our award. We improved from our score of 90 last year, and are considered a Best Workplace for Disability Inclusion. We’re honored to partner with two of the community’s leading organizations, Disability:IN and the National Disability Institute towards our commitment to financial empowerment for people with disabilities. We’re hosting conversations like this one to raise awareness of the barriers and explore solutions to financial inclusion. Experian is powering the credit resource page of the Financial Resilience Center so consumers have information at their fingertips. People with disabilities represent over one billion people across the globe. As one of our colleagues who represented Experian on a panel about innovation at the 2022 Disability:IN Conference explains, disability is a natural part of the human experience, and it crosses lines of age, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and religion. It’s in that spirit that we held a Global Hackathon, challenging our colleagues to create future products and services that can further the mission of financial inclusion and equity for communities worldwide. As co-executive sponsors of Experian’s ASPIRE employee resource group, which advocates for teammates with disabilities, we’re proud to have our progress acknowledged. And we’re hopeful because while we know the work of inclusion will never be done, the Disability Equality Index indicates we’re evolving in the right direction. Learn more about Experian’s commitment to creating a better tomorrow for the communities in which we live and work in The Power of You: 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report. Hear from Experian’s Roselyn M. about our culture of inclusion:
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