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2020 has been a year that has significantly impacted us all and the shockwaves are likely to challenge us for some time to come. One of the big disappointments for the data and tech industry is the postponement or cancellation of a number of major events – including the likes of Women in Data, which Experian was a proud Gold sponsor in 2019. Although we are not able to celebrate the Women in Data flagship event in person this year, we are thrilled to be an official partner of the very first WiD Week. This is a fantastic opportunity that will allow us to virtually gather together, support each other, and learn while in a safe online environment, driven by content that the Women in Data community needs right now. We are particularly excited to be hosting a session on Tuesday 24 November, which will focus on our support of Girls in Data. In this session, Experian’s Emily Capewell and Louise Maynard-Atem will be providing some thoughts on their involvement with the recent data challenge we hosted during the last lockdown. The data challenge was designed to help inspire young girls and boys to pursue a career in STEM. Louise will also be speaking on Thursday about her experience of 2020 and how we can action change as we head into 2021. This will be one of six short stories to mark Women in Data’s sixth birthday. We are extremely excited to be involved with WiD Week and while it will be slightly different this year, we hope our involvement can help empower and encourage more women into the data industry, supporting the next generation of data scientists who can help shape the future. You can find out more about WiD Week here.
October marked Black History Month (UK) – a celebration of the culture, heritage and achievements of Black people past and present. Although we weren’t able to celebrate in person this year, our Black at Experian employee network were still able to serve up an incredible range of inspiring webinars, videos, articles and podcasts covering topics discussing Black British culture, ways to discuss race and racism with our children, as well as the importance of being an ally. This exciting schedule of activities has been the perfect opportunity to learn more and many of us were personally touched by the stories of our Black colleagues who have openly and courageously shared their thoughts and experiences with us all. But as Black History Month comes to an end for another year, it’s essential that our support doesn’t stop here. As an organisation, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity for all. And our Black at Experian network has already been instrumental in helping us understand how we can improve in some of these areas. Part of this includes signing the Business in the Community (BITC) ‘Race at Work Charter’. By working alongside BITC, as well as our other employee networks, it\'s helping us create initiatives that will continue to drive positive change and inclusion for all. We are committed more than ever to leverage our differences as individuals and use this broad range of talents to develop our competitive advantage as a business. We’ve made good progress in a short space of time, but this is just the beginning. We are looking forward to continuing this important journey in building a workplace that embraces a more diverse and inclusive culture.
At Experian, we are committed to educating consumers about how to manage their credit histories and protect their financial health. At the same time, we know the COVID-19 pandemic has created a difficult economic reality for millions of Americans. In response, many people have questions about how to protect themselves financially, including their credit histories and scores. To address these questions, we partnered with pro football legend and American Ninja Warrior host Akbar Gbajabiamila to educate consumers across the country about steps they can take to protect their financial health and their credit standing. Gbajabiamila, author of “Everyone Can be a Ninja,” is passionate about helping people develop a financial game plan and he understands having a good credit history is a key component of good financial health. These interviews provided a platform for Gbajabiamila to share the four-point financial fitness game plan consumers can use protect and improve their financial health during the pandemic, including: Contacting your lenders as soon as possible if you think you may miss a payment. Many lenders provide emergency support, which can help protect your credit standing. Getting credit for paying cable, satellite, internet, Netflix and utility bills on time with Experian Boost Exploring balance transfer options or other introductory credit offers through Experian Credit Match Checking your credit report regularly. It’s free once a week at AnnualCreditReport.com. Tune in to Gbajabiamila’s interview with NBC Washington and hear his message to consumers in the videos below. For more credit education resources and tools: Join Experian’s #CreditChat hosted by @Experian on Twitter with financial experts every Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time Visit the Ask Experian blog for answers to common questions, advice and education about credit For additional resources visit www.experian.com/coronavirus
At Experian North America we pride ourselves on supporting a positive work environment for employees. It’s one of the reasons we launched The Power of You, a companywide initiative that aims to provide transparency into our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and our Employee Resource Groups in which 900 employees participate. The next natural progression of this evolution is to bring on a leader dedicated to be an agent of change and strengthen our commitment to a workplace culture in which all employees are celebrated for bringing their whole selves to work. Wil Lewis, formerly of Bank of America, will be joining Experian as our first ever Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Officer. In this new role, Lewis will build upon our award winning programs to reflect the employees, clients and communities we serve, further our commitment to diverse representation and continuously evolve the workplace culture where all of our employees are celebrated for bringing their whole selves to work. He most recently served as Senior Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion Executive for Bank of America. The creation of the new role highlights several critical components of our commitment to diversity and inclusion: Building a company where inclusion fuels collaboration and innovation to develop products which enable financial inclusion for all Ensuring that every employee feels emotionally connected to the company in an environment that is safe and supportive Attracting, developing and retaining talent that represents the communities in which Experian North America operates Institutionalize processes that will increase the number of diverse suppliers, disability accessibility tools and enhance the impact of external diversity partnerships You can read more about our ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion in our “Power of You” annual report, now in its third year. We’re also proud to have recently received recertification as a Great Place to Work for the third year in a row, and rank in the top 20 Fortune Best Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance and the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 2020. Additionally, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation granted Experian a perfect score in its Corporate Equality Index. You can read more about all of our diversity and inclusion initiatives here.
This blog is written by Rachel Duncan, HR Director, at Experian. At Experian, we encourage our employees to bring their whole selves to work and have created a culture of inclusion that helps to fuel our continued product innovation. We understand the incredible value in having a truly diverse workforce and this means removing barriers and working through challenges we all may face in and outside the workplace. That’s why we are proud to be supporting Stonewall’s ‘Trans Rights Are Human Rights’ campaign today to help reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004. We believe that all trans people should be protected and supported with legal and policy framework that enables them to live with dignity, privacy and respect, free from fear, isolation and discrimination. The GRA was introduced in 2004 to allow trans people to apply for legal recognition of gender in which they live. However, the process in doing so is expensive, intrusive and takes a very long time. To apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which allows someone to legally change their gender, the individual will have to overcome many psychological challenges and it can be very emotionally taxing. It’s estimated that just 12% of trans people have a GRC, despite 92% of trans people stating in the National LGBT Survey (2018) that they would be interested in getting one. GRA reform is therefore a key step in allowing legal gender recognition to become accessible to this marginalised community. The reform requests the removal of having to disclose a psychiatric report or proof of diagnosis in order to obtain legal recognition. It moves to allow trans people the human right to decide their gender for themselves and protect all trans and non-binary people’s rights to privacy and to family life. As well as this, non-binary people should be able to legally change their gender to reflect who they are including amending their birth certificate to reflect this. The reform should also include the removal of the spousal veto. This veto allows for the spouse of a trans person the decision as to whether they can change their gender and gives control over to someone who may not have their best interests at heart. We are fully committed in ensuring LGBTQ inclusion which means, as well as evolving our own internal policies and practices, we must also contribute to external debates that campaign for equality. Our Experian Pride network has been instrumental in helping us drive change throughout the business, whilst also educating and raising awareness amongst our colleagues about the LGBTQ community. This includes supporting a collaboration with Stonewall and our HR teams to create our new ‘Transitioning at Work’ policy, along with raising money for transgender charity, Mermaids. Experian is part of a growing group of leading businesses who have joined forces to support trans equality, so we hope that together we can make a real difference to the lives of trans people across the UK. See our interview with Lewis Hayden, Service Desk Specialist and Experian Pride Network Member.
Juniper Research released their Online Payment Fraud 2020-2024 report in May highlighting key trends in digital fraud, it’s implications on businesses and consumers as well as a competitive analysis for advanced solutions available to secure digital payments. Experian is proud to have contributed to the research and its CrossCore solution considered on their Fraud Detection & Prevention Leaderboard. Key takeaways: We’re in the middle of a payment revolution with mobile payments on the rise. Nearly half the world will be using digital wallets by 2024, with transaction values to increase by almost 60% to over $9 trillion in 2024. Omnichannel expectations are creating new challenges for online payments as new technologies for creating convenience are being exploited by cybercriminals, but it’s preventable. Juniper Research forecasts a $25.5 billion eCommerce transaction fraud loss in 2019, a 17% increase in 2018. By 2024, this will double to almost $50.5 billion. The Fraud Detection & Prevention Leaderboard is an assessment based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures but not considered a ranking or exhaustive list of solutions on the market. Experian’s flagship solution, CrossCore, just released its latest advanced features and offers unique functionality that lives up to its layered approach for mitigating fraud and authenticating customers. CrossCore is an integrated digital identity and fraud risk platform that combines rich data assets from Experian with identity insights and capabilities from its curated partner ecosystem. Through sophisticated orchestration, it applies advanced analytics to give businesses confidence in every transaction. CrossCore combines risk-based authentication, identity proofing, and fraud detection into a single cloud platform to make real-time risk decisions throughout the customer lifecycle. The platform is designed to help clients differentiate between their good and bad customers, without disrupting good customers, or increasing customer friction in their attempts to stop fraud. Key profile features: Our partner network, some of which we don’t publicly disclose, cover a variety of categories including, behavioural biometrics (Biocatch), traditional biometrics (Daon), document verification (Mitek, Acuant, Onfido), call centre risk assessments (TrustID, NextCaller), email verification (Emailage), Alternative Data (Ekata, Global Data Consortium, HelloSoda, Pipl), Mobile Phone Verification (Boku/Danal) and Chargeback Management (Chargebacks911). Customers include banks, eCommerce merchants and retail companies, telecommunications providers, travel providers, health providers, insurance companies, and public sector organizations. Advanced Decisioning: CrossCore is designed to leverage the complete raw output in our partner network to perform advanced analytics via Experian’s native machine learning infrastructure. This approach includes a hybrid of Unsupervised models (to generate features), Supervised generic or custom models per use case, and a business rules infrastructure. This provides high levels of accuracy to the client, leading to significantly reduced friction and operational costs. Find out how Experian’s capabilities compare and hear from our experts on how to balance security with convenient customer experiences.
Experian, the global information services company, has agreed to join FDATA in support of its Open Banking initiatives around the world. The commitment includes membership in the UK, US, and EMEA. It reflects Experian\'s strategy for rolling out Open Banking services across its global footprint that includes South America, South East Asia including Australia and South Africa. Access to Open Banking will complement the organisation\'s network of credit bureaux, identity verification, and automated decision services that it already provides to consumers and businesses. Open Banking enables Experian to provide additional insight into consumers\' and businesses\' financial wellbeing. Lisa Fretwell, Managing Director of Data Services at Experian, said: \"Joining FDATA helps us to exchange knowledge, thought leadership, and drive innovation at a time when we are increasing our strategic commitment and investment plans for Open Banking. This will also include the UK\'s Open Finance initiative.\" Experian helps consumers and businesses to engage with and understand their finance through combining its bureau data with insights generated from Open Banking. Its consumer services business engages with more than 7 million consumers in the UK and more than 30 million in the U.S, empowering people to manage their money and access services at the best available rates. Meanwhile, Experian also works with a range of businesses – from financial services to utilities, and insurance to the public sector – so is well placed to drive successful Open Banking initiatives. Working with FDATA and its members will further improve Experian\'s prospects of encouraging governments and regulators to commit to delivering the highest possible standards in Open Banking. \"Our membership will help us gain insights into policy issues that affect Open Banking and drive initiatives so consumers and businesses can gain greater access to fair and affordable credit,\" said Paul Haddon, Vice President of Governance & Strategic Initiatives. \"Our launch of adding consumer-permissioned data to Experian credit reports called Experian Boost is a great example of how we are innovating and improving financial access for millions of people.\" Launched in 2019, Experian Boost allows consumers to add positive payment history for telecommunications and utility bills to their Experian credit reports, which can possibly increase their credit scores instantly. Gavin Littlejohn, FDATA Global Chair, added, \"FDATA is delighted at Experian\'s decision to broaden the scope of their membership, a strategy that aligns a significant global footprint with FDATA\'s ongoing expansion and engagement in multiple markets. A first step in the journey towards Open Finance, Open Banking is undergoing international proliferation. FDATA shapes and influences this dialogue at the earliest possible stages for the good of the consumer and the health of the ecosystem, providing invaluable insights from across market landscapes with regard to delivery and holding markets accountable for ongoing performance. These efforts rest on the pillars of rich, living repositories of comprehensive research, white papers and opinion pieces and, a proven history of successful lobbying and intervention on behalf of the membership. The addition of Experian\'s voice to the FDATA membership extends the collaborative capability of the combined membership, enhancing the synergy between the members themselves. The unprecedented economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge of innovative responses from the Fintech community throughout the global ecosystem. FDATA is uniquely placed to facilitate these conversations between industry, governments, and regulators, encouraging the potential of products and services to yield the best possible outcomes for SMEs and populations as a whole.\"
At Experian we have an unwavering commitment to help consumers and clients manage through this unprecedented period. We are actively working with consumers, lenders, lawmakers, and regulators to help mitigate the potential impact on credit scores during times of financial hardship. In response to the urgent and rapid changes associated with COVID-19, we are accelerating and enhancing our financial education programming with the goal of helping consumers maintain good credit and gain access to the financial services they need. This is in addition to processes and tools the industry has in place to help lenders accommodate situations where consumers are affected by circumstances beyond their control. These processes will be extended to those experiencing financial hardship as a result of COVID-19. As the Consumer’s Credit Bureau, our commitment at Experian is to inform, guide and protect our consumers and customers during uncertain times. With expected delays in bill payments, unprecedented layoffs, hiring freezes and related hardships, we are here to help consumers in understanding how the credit reporting system and personal finance overall will move forward in this landscape. One way we’re doing this is inviting everyone to join our special eight-week series of #CreditChat conversations surrounding COVID-19 on Wednesdays at 3 p.m. ET on Twitter. Our weekly #CreditChat program started in 2012 to help the community learn about credit and important personal finance topics (e.g. saving money, paying down debt, improving credit scores). The next several #CreditChat events will be dedicated to discussing ways to manage finances and credit during the pandemic. Topics of these #CreditChats will include methods and strategies for bill repayment, paying down debt, emergency financial assistance and preparing for retirement during COVID-19. “As the consumer’s credit bureau, we are committed to working with consumers, lenders and the financial community during and following the impacts of COVID-19,” says Craig Boundy, Chief Executive Officer of Experian North America. “As part of our nation’s new reality, we are planning for options to help mitigate the potential impact on credit scores due to financial hardships seen nationwide. Our #CreditChat series and supporting resources serve as one of several informational touchpoints with consumers moving forward.” Being fully committed to helping consumers and lenders during this unprecedented period, we’ve created a dedicated blog page, “COVID-19 and Your Credit Report,” with ongoing and updated information pertaining to how COVID-19 may impact consumers’ creditworthiness and – ultimately – what people should do to preserve it. The blog will be updated with relevant news as we announce new solutions and tactics. Additionally, our “Ask Experian” blog invites consumers to explore immediate and evolving resources on our COVID-19 Updates page. In addition to this guidance, and with consumer confidence in the economy expected to decline, we will be listening closely to the expert voices in our Consumer Council, a group of leaders from organizations committed to helping consumers on their financial journey. We established a Consumer Council in 2009 to strengthen our relationships and to initiate a dialogue among Experian and consumer advocacy groups, industry experts, academics and other key stakeholders. This is in addition to ongoing collaboration with our regulators. Additionally, our Experian Education Ambassador program enables hundreds of employee volunteers to serve as ambassadors sharing helpful information with consumers, community groups and others. The goal is to help the communities we serve across North America, providing the knowledge consumers need to better manage their credit, protect themselves from fraud and identity theft and lead more successful, financially healthy lives. COVID-19 has impacted all industries and individuals from all walks of life. We want our community to know we are right there with you. Learn more about our weekly #CreditChat and upcoming schedule here.
Last year we revealed that there were around 5.8 million people in the UK who were virtually invisible to the financial system. These ‘credit invisibles’ might have limited financial data because they just turned 18 and are new to credit, or they may have recently moved to the UK. Alternatively, perhaps they conduct most of their transactions in cash or simply haven’t used credit for a long time. Either way, we wanted to spotlight the issue, to explain how we can help people regain control of their financial footprints and ensure more people get access to affordable financial products and services. So, as our support for Credit Awareness Week moves into its fourth year, we decided to check in on our progress. The positive news is that we have managed to reduce this financially excluded population by nearly half a million in the last 12 months, to just over 5.3 million – as the map below shows. Credit Awareness Week 2020 offers us all the chance to reflect on all the hard work that so many of us have put into tackling financial exclusion. As a result of this work, more people can access the mainstream services they need, and many are paying less than they otherwise would have. Yet there is much more which needs to be done. We need to continue to innovate and find new solutions to help widen affordable financial access for all. Promoting a better understanding of the things that people can do to help improve their financial track record. Together we can continue our mission to bring more people into the mainstream financial system and deliver better, more affordable products and services for everyone.