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It’s an exciting time for all of us at Experian. When I became CEO, just over four years ago, we set a clear path to put an even greater focus on our relationship with consumers and how we can help them in their financial journey. Today, as we prepare to launch Experian Boost, we are marking a major milestone in that commitment. There are more than 100 million Americans who don't have fair access to credit today. These consumers are often overlooked by lenders and forced to rely on high interest credit cards and loans. Too often they find themselves stuck in a never-ending cycle in which the best of intentions and the desire for a better financial future clash with reality. At Experian, we know that a credit score is the gatekeeper to better financial opportunities. It can make or break people’s access to the very things that help them thrive in today’s economy like getting a loan for a family car or access to a credit card with a lower interest rate. Unfortunately, many consumers have credit files that are considered too “thin”. And while they may be paying their utility, mobile phone and cable TV bills on time month after month, this responsible behavior hasn’t been acknowledged or rewarded with a higher credit score. Experian Boost changes this scenario and give consumers the credit they deserve. As a business, we want to ensure that as many people as possible can access and participate in the financial system and we believe everyone deserves a fair shot at achieving their financial dreams. Today’s Experian Boost announcement drives our mission forward by giving consumers more control over their credit score. This industry-first online platform will give consumers an opportunity to instantly improve their credit scores by adding positive telecom and utility payment information directly into their credit profile. Experian Boost is free and will be accessible to every credit-active adult in America. We recently briefed Experian’s Consumer Council, a group of 12 leaders from organizations committed to helping consumers on their financial journey, on Experian Boost with great feedback. Here’s what one of the organizations, the Credit Builders Alliance, had to say: “Limited credit activity and history are key barriers for consumers to achieve their financial goals,” said Dara Duguay, executive director, Credit Builders Alliance. “We fully support initiatives that promote financial inclusion and think Experian Boost could play an important role in overcoming that barrier. We look forward to seeing how Experian’s new platform impacts consumers.” Innovations like this and the modernization of an industry don’t happen easily. I couldn't be prouder of our employees who have been working for past three years to make this platform a reality. We are pioneering a bright future for the world of credit with Experian Boost, a product which is emblematic of the innovation culture we foster at Experian. Experian has a fundamental purpose that is shared by colleagues around the world: to strive to be a champion for the consumer. With Experian Boost, we're bringing our purpose to life and we can’t wait to share it with you. To find out more about Experian Boost, please visit: experian.com/boost.

I’m delighted that we’ve today announced our proposed acquisition of Compuscan, a successful and trusted provider of credit information and analytics services to organisations across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Lesotho and Uganda, as well as in the Philippines and Australia. As part of the proposed acquisition, we are also pleased to include Scoresharp, Compuscan’s thriving credit risk management consultancy. Established in South Africa in 1994, Compuscan was the country’s first credit bureau for the micro finance sector, providing vital assistance at a time it was most needed.  Compuscan has since become a key player in this sector and grown into a company that operates across nine countries offering creditinformation services, decision analytics services, marketing services and loyalty/rewards services. The proposed acquisition will complement and extend the services already provided by Experian in the South African market, as well as creating significant opportunities for further growth, innovation and financial inclusion across the wider African region. We now enter a standard regulatory review process through which the competition regulator will review the proposed acquisition. South Africa is a vital hub for our regional strategy and the proposed acquisition is just one of the investments we’re making to build our presence here. We recently confirmed the upcoming launch of our new analytics platform Ascend across EMEA, with South Africa planned to be one of the first markets to benefit from its arrival. We’re excited about the potential of this acquisition not only to accelerate our innovation plans, but also to use the combined Compuscan, Scoresharp and Experian organisation to help drive financial inclusion across Africa. We look forward to welcoming the Compuscan and Scoresharp teams to Experian in due course and to bringing all of the benefits of a combined organisation to our clients and consumers across the region.  

For each of the past six years, Experian’s position on the Orange County Register’s list of Top Workplaces has continued to rise, and it’s cause for real celebration across our workforce. This marks a special year for us, as Experian North America was awarded the #1 spot on the list. “Our team members bring their own backgrounds, perspectives, and approaches to work, which together helps us make smarter decisions, develop better products and ultimately deliver more value to consumers,” according to Craig Boundy, former CEO of Experian North America. “This #1 ranking validates our commitment to embracing a truly inclusive culture where everyone has a real sense of belonging, knowing they can show up every day and be who they are, professionally and personally.”   The Power of YOU As part of this commitment, we’ve created an environment where everyone is comfortable bringing their whole self to work, regardless of differences or backgrounds. It’s about advancing a culture that not only respects differences, but actively celebrates them. We call this The Power of YOU. We celebrate our diversity through a range of fun and engaging cultural events, social clubs and volunteer opportunities with nonprofit organizations. As an example, this year we launched a variety of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), including: Military Veterans and Patriots group African American group, Asian American group Hispanic and Latino group Namaste (Indian) group Experian Pride Network group Pictures of employees at various ERG events The Power of YOU initiative builds on the Women in Experian (WiE) group, which was formed two years ago and is focused on improving gender balance across all levels of the organization. Spearheaded by a global team of female leaders from across the business, the group focuses on helping women achieve their ambitions and build successful careers. Each month, employees meet to plan initiatives ranging from guest speakers and lunch-and-learn events to job shadowing and mentorship programs to International Women’s Day activities. Humans of Experian Another exciting initiative is Humans of Experian. This video series highlights the personal stories of employees across the organization. Each story shares an employee’s unique experiences and perspectives and illustrates what it means to be a part of our organization that values and celebrates inclusion and diversity. You can see their stories here: Innovation and Business Success Our culture of diversity and inclusion has enabled Experian to grow and evolve while remaining at the forefront of innovation. For more than 40 years, Orange County has been the heart of our North America operations. We’ve remained focused on developing a culture that achieves and sustains higher performance while giving back to the community, and we’ve strengthened the business across every front. As a result, we continue to have a positive impact on consumers, businesses and the economy with our products, technology and innovations, from finding breakthroughs around better utilizing data to identifying ways we can make access to credit faster and simpler for millions around the world. This is the driving force behind Experian being named to Forbes’ prestigious World’s Most Innovative Companies list for the last several years as well. We’re very proud to be ranked as the #1 Top Workplace by the Orange County Register for our positive workplace culture, which attracts and retains top talent in Orange County as well as our other locations across North America. Our employees are committed to helping to create better tomorrows in our communities through technology and innovation, social responsibility, and our everyday work and business purpose.

In an article published by Bloomberg this week, Brian Cassin, Experian CEO, discusses the transformation of the business from a credit bureau to an innovative, global information services firm. The story highlights some of the remarkable work Experian does with high-profile clients including Coca-Cola and Fannie Mae, using data to inform marketing and strategy decisions. The article also references recent product innovations including Ascend, which offers analytics on demand, and PowerCurve, our market-leading decision analytics platform. Worth mentioning is that Experian’s strong financial performance also comes through in the article, which notes that the company’s stock price has doubled since 2015 while the FTSE 100 index has stagnated. Check out the full article.

Data science is transforming the way the world works. And yet it’s no secret that there aren’t enough women pursuing a career in STEM. At Experian, we’d love to see that change.  It’s better for everyone when industries are diverse; it makes us all stronger, more creative and more effective. Part of encouraging new generations into our industry means recognising and celebrating the achievements of the female role models working in data today. That’s why we’re thrilled to sponsor this year’s Women in Data (WiD) conference, an event designed to help inspire, educate and support women in the industry.  Women like Experian’s Sarah Robertson, who recently shared her story with leading women’s publication, We Are The City, and who will be sitting on our panel session at the event. We want to have a workforce that’s as rich in diversity as the people who use our services. That’s one of the many reasons we’re so excited by WiD’s mission. Together we hope to empower and encourage women into the data science industry, supporting the next generation of data scientists who can help shape the future. You can find out more about the WiD community on our recent podcast.

Every day we work with companies doing amazing things with their data.  We are therefore delighted to be sponsoring the very first Experian ‘Data Excellence’ award at this year’s Lloyds Bank National Business Awards.  It gives us the chance to celebrate organisations for their innovative thinking and excellent use of data - an area we at Experian are very passionate about. The quality of entries for this category was high, showcasing some real-life examples of how data-driven solutions can not only deliver better outcomes for customers, but also embrace the opportunities presented by an ever-changing data landscape.  However, there could only be one winner. So, we are pleased to announce that Cleveland Police are the deserving recipient of the inaugural award for their ‘Golden Nominal’ project – an initiative which demonstrates how the power of better data can have a positive impact on policing. The project responds to the huge challenge that having vast, unquantifiable number of duplicate records was posing on delivering an efficient and appropriate response to the community.  And not only has it far surpassed targets in terms of reducing duplicates, most importantly it’s provided opportunities to serve the community better and identify those most vulnerable far more quickly. Such was its innovative nature, the project was recognised at a national level by the Home Office, who provided co-funding from its Innovation Fund – a fantastic result for them.  The award was presented by Experian’s Chief Data Officer, Jonathan Westley, to Maria Hopper from Cleveland Police at the awards ceremony in London. She said:  “We’re absolutely thrilled to be named as winners of the ‘Data Excellence’ award.  Our data initiative allowed us to solve a challenge that was hindering our ability to respond quickly and accurately to those who need it most in our community.  For us, winning this award is fantastic recognition of the critical role that data plays in delivering positive policing and keeping people safe.” To hear more from Maria, you can watch this short video. We would like to congratulate Cleveland Police on a well-deserved award win, along with all the other winners on the night. To find out more, you can visit the National Business Awards website.

Following this year’s One Young World summit, we sat down with Jade Starrett, Global Talent and Engagement Director at Experian, and Abigail Lovell, Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Responsibility and Shared Marketing at Experian, to talk about the importance of the summit and how Experian’s partnership with the organisation is helping us to create a better world for our clients and partners. Q: Why does Experian participate in One Young World? A: Jade: I think it’s a really positive, inspiring initiative for us to be involved in as an organisation and it’s incredibly well aligned to our purpose of Creating a Better Tomorrow. So, I think with all the brand work that we’ve been doing over the last couple of years, there’s a huge relevance to what we do, who we are as a business, and what we’re trying to achieve. As of now, we employ 57% Gen Y across Experian and 25% of our employees across Experian are under 30. So, we’re a really young business and I think we all know that for many young people, they’re passionate about social change and they really want to make a difference in the world.   A: Abigail: That’s exactly what it is - a way of connecting young people and employees to our brand purpose of Creating a Better Tomorrow. And our ambassadors do this by not just connecting with corporate responsibility leaders around the business but also with other young people around the globe from different companies. These folks are innovators and change makers who bring all of this together to come up with ideas that can positively impact the communities where we live and work.   Q: What benefits have you seen from being part of One Young World for the past six years?   A: Jade: There are clear benefits for the individuals themselves who participate. They come back from the summit inspired and energised by the people that they’ve met and the leaders they’ve heard.  I think they also benefit from the personal growth, development and motivation that the experience also gives them. There is a societal benefit because the work that the ambassadors are leading and pioneering through the organisation positively impacts society and supports our corporate responsibility agenda. We’ve consciously aimed to try to tie in peoples’ ideas and passions with what Experian does as a business and what capabilities we can use to make a difference.   A: Abigail: Yes, One Young World has really inspired change makers across our business to make a positive impact in the community. We’ve had projects that support refugees to expand our consumer education programme and to help people get more empowered around finance and credit in their own region. One Young World offers an opportunity to make a positive impact on society and consumers.   "I think our aim of celebrating what we do in this CSR space more, talking about it more, communicating it more widely will help us from a talent attraction point of view, particularly with younger people."   Q: Why do you think it’s important for Experian to foster a culture of innovation?   A: Abigail: Innovation is on the minds of all our leadership team. It’s a key differentiator for us in the marketplace. It’s part of our DNA and is fundamental to the way we make a real impact to society and in the world. We invest in new products and services that help more people get affordable access to essential everyday services. And many of these products started as social innovation projects developed by people in our business, for example Limpa Nome (which translates to “Clean name”) in Brazil.   Jade: I also think that to be really creative and innovative, you need to break your normal daily routines and ways of thinking. When you’re put into and immersed in an environment like the One Young World summit, with people who have vastly different experiences to your own, you are inspired to think differently.   "Essentially if you think about Experian’s business strategy, innovation is such an important pillar of that strategy for growth. And that’s innovation in terms of social innovation like Abigail talked about, and it’s innovation across our entire business agenda."   Q: How does Experian encourage young people to take that learning and bring it back into the organisation?   Jade: When we first started looking at our participation with One Young World, the majority of corporates who send people and who have corporate memberships don’t do what we do. We wanted to tie it directly into the business and we wanted individuals to have real skin-in-the-game. So, it was a very conscious decision on our part to create a competition to encourage people to think “what am I passionate about”, “what is Experian trying to deliver for our clients and consumers” and “is there a need for this that we can help fill and create social change” - and use that to apply to become one of Experian’s One Young World ambassadors.   A: Abigail: And the way that we do this is ahead of the One Young World summit, our ambassadors identify local social challenges that they are passionate about so they can debate and find innovative solutions with like-minded individuals at the actual summit. When they return, they are fired up, they are ready to draw on the knowledge from the summit, and then they work with the local corporate responsibility teams in the regions to put their learnings into practice to help solve some of the biggest social challenges.   Q: Is there a One Young World project that really stands out for you?   A: Abigail:  Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) runs the Business Class Program (formerly governed by Schools Connect Australia), a non-profit organisation in Australia that matches companies with schools in disadvantaged communities to improve educational outcomes of students. Sarah Hughes, a member of our first cohort of One Young World Ambassadors leads the programme which is now in its fifth year. This programme has seen 400 employees from Experian volunteer their time and impart their knowledge and skills to students at McClelland College and their teachers. ABCN conducted a thorough evaluation of the students’ progress and found that with Experian’s support, around 600 students showed improvements in educational outcomes. This year, Sarah integrated an exciting new award-winning digital financial literacy programme, Banqer, into the school’s curriculum and it’s being rolled out to 250 students this year. For me, this is a fantastic example of how we can work together to Create a Better Tomorrow.    

The following is written by Jan Barratt, Experian. We owe everything to the millions who lost their lives in the Great War, fighting for our freedom.  Without their sacrifice, the world we know would be a very different place. This November marks a whole century since the guns finally fell silent on WW1. It’s only fitting we use this landmark anniversary to remember and celebrate everything they did for us. The Games of Remembrance 2018 is an opportunity to do exactly that. Inspired by a generation’s love of football and its ability to unify, The Games of Remembrance harnesses the power of the beautiful game to remind us all of the immense bravery and sacrifice of millions.  We’re proud to sponsor the Games and to play a small part in helping those memories live on and to commemorate the people who lost their lives in the conflict. Furthermore, we’re thrilled that this year’s celebration comes to Nottingham, a place where Sir John Peace, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, and the late Eric Barnes built up Experian from its roots almost 50 years ago. Today, we employ more than 2,000 people across the East Midlands region. We’re proud to be sponsoring the Games of Remembrance, and we are proud to be part of the Nottingham community. We remember.

We recently participated in Finovate Fall, where we joined top fintechs and financial institutions from around the world to debate about the current state of the financial services industry and more importantly, its future. A future where the so-called ‘experience economy’ will unfold and those putting the customer at the center of their innovation will thrive. But, how to get there and remain relevant in an ever-challenging environment? Committing to a culture of technology and innovation that transforms interactions between businesses and consumers is the first step. Take financial institutions and fintechs, for example. Despite their different approaches to what it takes to serve their customers better, both traditional and non-traditional industry players agree that technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning play a pivotal role in their respective digital transformation strategies. But with the change comes the challenge: most of organizations recognize they still struggle to fully operationalize the output of their advanced predictive analytics. To be true to our own commitment to technology and innovation and help businesses execute machine learning models within their decision processes, we have launched a new release of our flagship decisioning platform. The latest PowerCurve release integrates machine learning to deliver a faster and better analysis of data. These actionable insights will help our clients identify the opportunities presented by each of their customers quicker and more easily. Leveraging today’s technology to sustain tomorrow’s growth We believe that enabling businesses to leverage their current technology investments to support future growth is key to ensure they get the full benefit of their commitment to innovation. The latest PowerCurve capabilities allow custom plug-ins to be added at any time to support the next generation of technology and decision-making strategies while ensuring consistent, precise and personalized experiences that satisfy consumers’ demands over time. This enhanced flexibility means that businesses can get value of their current data and technology investments today and keep at pace with the latest and most effective decision management strategies across the entire customer life cycle. In addition, PowerCurve will continue to satisfy compliance requirements and provide the necessary governance and explainability that is essential in today’s market. With the updates to our decisioning platform and incorporation of machine learning capabilities, businesses will be able to make the right decisions today, resting reassured that those decisions will remain precise and relevant in the future.