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/.
We are excited to share that Experian is proudly supporting MIT’s Solve initiative, which is focused on helping to solve global challenges. We are committing up to $100,000 for the Good Jobs & Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Learning for Girls & Women challenges. Each promotes the financial health of workers, businesses, and communities affected by COVID-19. At Experian, we feel it is our responsibility to help create a better future for the societies where we work. Today, communities, businesses, and individuals are being confronted with difficult challenges because of COVID-19. We are developing solutions to some of the financial problems that are being faced due to the pandemic. Our key focus is helping people improve their financial health and get better credit, which will help them secure essential services and achieve their goals of owning a home, starting a business, or reaching other ambitions. Some of our accomplishments include Experian Boost having already been used by more than 4 million Americans to try and boost their credit scores; our social innovation programs, focused on delivering societal benefits, which have reached 14 million people; and our employee volunteerism – with employees volunteering 54,000 hours to provide support to people through our financial education and community programs. Through Experian’s Social Innovation funding program, we develop innovative products that aim to offer societal benefits. Our dedication to social innovation will be on display as we support MIT’s Solve Challenge, which focuses on innovation in the social impact space. This competition is open to tech-based entrepreneurs across the globe and is focused on developing solutions to create lasting change. Each year, MIT receives thousands of applicants for this program. Our challenge is specifically related to solving financial health issues which have arisen for consumer groups as a result of COVID-19. We will be splitting the $100,000 prize money to accelerate up to four ideas into market, and we will also provide other assistance such as our in-house expertise and resources. This will include mentoring and potentially data or analytics to support the delivery of the most innovative solutions. Innovation is at the core of this challenge, which is a key focus at Experian. We have been frequently recognised as one of the most innovative companies in the world and feel that our mission and vision will help make this initiative successful. Our people, data, and analytics will support the delivery of the most innovative solutions that are meeting the challenges in today’s challenging landscape. We are proud to be part of MIT’s Solve Challenge and look forward to working with the winners to help create solutions for those most in need.
Many of us have turned to streaming services to help us cope during this time of COVID-19. Being able to escape with some good entertainment while still maintaining our social distance is invaluable right now. Television streaming has skyrocketed 85% since March; I’ve certainly contributed to that increase. Now, subscribing to that streaming service can do more than entertain, it can improve a consumer’s financial health. Starting today, Netflix® customers can possibly improve their FICO® Score by adding their positive payment history through Experian Boost. Experian Boost™† is the innovation we launched in 2019 that can help consumers improve their credit score instantly. So far, approximately four million consumers have connected their utility and telecom bills to Experian Boost, leading to more than 29 million points added to FICO® Scores nationwide. This addition makes sense. Experian Boost already allows consumers to receive credit for paying their cable bills, so paying for a video streaming service on time should also help prove creditworthiness. It’s critical that we meet consumers where they are and adapt to help them in their current position, especially during a pandemic. Anticipating and prioritizing consumer needs is our focus and drives our innovation. After all, we’re consumers too. I’m proud of how our team uses their personal experience and their roles at Experian to create opportunity for millions of people to improve their financial health, especially during these uncertain times. Our job is to help consumers, and that doesn’t stop with their credit score. That’s why we’re also launching new free features available to everyone within the CreditWorks Basic and Premium products. The free tools provide personal insights and resources that can help consumers better save money and manage their financial profile. For more information about Experian Boost go to: www.experian.com/Boost. Experian and the Experian trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Experian and its affiliates. The use of any other trade name, copyright, or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the copyright or trademark holder of their product or brand. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. †Results may vary. Some may not see improved scores or approval odds. Not all lenders use Experian credit files, and not all lenders use scores impacted by Experian Boost. Credit score calculated based on FICO® Score 8 model. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than FICO® Score 8, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more.
We sit in a pivotal position in the societies where we work. For us at Experian, using our data and expertise to create a better tomorrow is more than an opportunity. It’s a responsibility. We are pleased to announce we have published our annual Sustainable Business Report 2020, which outlines Experian’s dedication to social and environmental issues and details our corporate responsibility performance. In the report, we also highlight Experian’s target to reach 100 million additional people globally by 2025 with social innovation products and services. Additionally, the Sustainable Business Report focuses on our ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030. By utilizing renewable energy, reducing the carbon impact of business travel, and investing in high-quality carbon offsets, we reduced our carbon footprint by 8% last year and cut the carbon intensity of our business by 14% per $1,000 of revenue compared with the previous year. Additionally, 29% of Experian’s worldwide energy was also renewable. We are excited to share a few key takeaways from this year’s Sustainable Business Report: Experian employees volunteered 54,500 hours in and outside of work time to support their communities. This included over 3,500 hours in March 2020 to support communities as the COVID-19 crisis took hold. In Brazil, we have supported the introduction of new legislation enabling millions of consumers to benefit from the use of ‘positive’ data about the credit and other bills they pay on time. Experian Boost helped over 1.5 million Americans improve their credit scores, collectively boosting their FICO® scores by more than 17 million points. Prove ID-Link helped 7.5 million people in India prove their identity. As a result, more people are able to open a bank account and access credit for the first time. Learn more by viewing or downloading our full Sustainable Business Report here.
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