Experian Global News Blog

Category: Innovation

At Experian, we are continually innovating and using technology to find solutions to global issues, modernize the financial services industry and increase financial access for all. Read about our latest innovation news below:

  • How Do You Transform the Lending Experience? Digitize. Modernize. Remove Friction.

    Globalization and technological innovation are changing the way Americans work.

    More and more, people are taking advantage of easy-to-use technology to take care of their day-to-day tasks, be they personal or work-related. While consumers have adapted to the new digital world and continuous progress in many aspects of their lives, their credit bureaus have been hard at work shifting and navigating to the new normal of frictionless technology tools on our personal devices that most of us are embracing.

    However, we have to acknowledge that even with some positive changes and advancements taking place in the lending industry, the lending process overall has not always kept pace with technology and consumer expectations, with applicants stuck pushing papers in application stages that can last almost 10 weeks.

    Aspirations for higher education that require a student loan, building or purchasing a home through a mortgage and realizing that next big innovative idea with a small business loan are hamstrung by a remnant of the 20th century – the paper-based loans processes.

    So today, Experian and Finicity are announcing a partnership that promises to transform the consumer and lender experience and bring it into the 21st century.

    By partnering with Finicity, we are leveraging our combined capabilities – their industry-leading 16,000 developed integrations throughout the financial services field and Experian’s Decisioning as a Service platform, to be the first credit bureau that can digitize the loan asset and income verification steps of the underwriting process for consumers and lenders.

    For consumers, this digital transformation of key steps of the loan underwriting process can mean increased time and money savings by helping to decrease the cost of lending. Loan approval speed can move up to 85 percent faster, taking the process from as many as 70 days to as few as 10 days.

    The access to faster lines of credit enables consumers to get the keys to their new home sooner and removes obstacles to opening a business. Instead of filling out, printing, photocopying and compiling document upon document, consumers need to only permission lenders to verify their income and assets.

    The new lending process also opens new opportunities for the millions of Americans who may be “credit invisible.” Tens of millions of Americans lack access to credit either because they haven’t ever accessed credit or have a weak credit history.

    Yet, most consumers have a checking and savings account, as well as other payment obligations such as rent, and utility and phone bills, which can demonstrate they are capable of repaying a loan. Finicity’s extensive integrations fill this gap by capturing alternative data, like on-time rental payments, utility bills and other non-traditional transaction information, which creates a more comprehensive picture of consumers.

    By looking at predictive alternative data, we are leveraging and harnessing the power of data to help underserved populations, including millennials, minorities and immigrants build their futures by accessing credit to start a business, obtain a mortgage or finance higher-education pursuits.

    What does this mean for lenders? It means providing customers with a better experience throughout the underwriting process and significantly reducing the risk of fraud with up-to-date, accurate information.

    In addition, Finicity is in a final pilot testing review to obtain Day 1 Certainty by Fannie Mae. With Day 1 Certainty, lenders can validate loan application data including income and assets upfront. The results are freedom from representations and warranties, more efficient risk management and a streamlined process.

    At Experian, we take charge of powering opportunities seriously. We take pride – but don’t rest on our laurels – in that we’re the industry leader in technological innovation to reduce pain points for consumers and build better products for our clients. We don’t innovate for innovation’s sake. Rather, we seek to leverage technology to help more people access better tomorrows.

    This partnership and the product stand to benefit millions people by facilitating access to credit for the first time for many. For all consumers, it will reduce the burden the formerly burdensome loan underwriting process – and speed the approval times. For lenders, we’re reducing occurrences of fraud and allowing them to more appropriately price risk.

    We’re continuing to lead by digitizing the credit bureau, and undoubtedly, this announcement will be joined by other announcements that we will be making in the near term.

    Revolutionizing the Home-Buying Journey

    Introducing Income & Asset Verification

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  • Helping Hospitals Prevent Medical Identity Theft to Protect Patients from Fraud

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    I’m a Senior Vice President of Sales, responsible for leading Experian Health’s teams as they assist hospitals, physicians, labs and pharmacies across the U.S.

    We provide technology for providers and patients to help keep the costs and payment processing component of healthcare easy and transparent. The part of my work I am most passionate about, however, is our efforts to decrease identity theft in healthcare.

    Medical identity theft is one of the fastest growing areas of identity fraud in the world. With everything moving online at a fast pace, health care providers may not always keep up with the protections needed with new technologies.

    Unfortunately, that means hackers can sometimes acquire a patient’s personal information – name, Social Security number, health insurance number – to illegally obtain medical services or devices, insurance reimbursements or prescription drugs.

    One of the biggest issues with this type of fraud is that it leaves its victims with little to no recourse for recovery. They often experience financial repercussions and discover that faulty information has been added to their personal medical files as a result.

    To address this issue, my team and I partnered with Experian’s Decision Analytics team to create a new tool that protects patients’ online portals in much the same way that banks have protected their online clients for years.

    Additionally, our team is the in process of launching a Universal Identity Matching solution – a unique PIN which acts like the Social Security Number for your health care information.

    As more health care companies begin to adopt it, this PIN will be the one thing you will need to carry with you, as it will be your unique identifier for all your health care experiences.

    A lot of processes in hospitals today are still manual, but I want to change that.

    I want to automate systems so hospital staff can focus on where they are most needed. I am proud to work at a company that’s at the forefront of solving the major problems in healthcare IT.

    Being able to provide technological solutions in an industry where you can directly see the benefit is both personally and professionally rewarding.

    Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.

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  • Using Data To Help Banks Manage Credit & Fraud Risk to Offer Better Deals to Consumers #ExperianStories

    Alexandria_Siotos_QuotesI’m a Senior Director of Experian’s Decision Analytics Global Consulting Practice. That means I help banks manage their credit and fraud risk to help drive profits forward. Many of my clients are banks that need help across multiple business units, including credit cards, auto loans and mortgages.

    What I love about my job is how it constantly challenges me to expand my imagination of what data is capable of achieving.

    I’m always finding new ways to use data to keep banks’ revenue flowing, save them money, improve underwriting criteria for people seeking auto loans and help banking customers get a better rate on their mortgage.

    For example, I was recently approached by a major bank that needed a way to collect on delinquent credit card accounts that had previously been written off. The bank needed a way to collect on these accounts that would work within their budget and strict pricing structures while providing the maximum amount of revenue. Using data, I was able to show the bank a solution that not only improved delinquency rates on their numerous credit card accounts, but also provided a significant reduction in operational expenses.

    Technology has enabled us to do so much more for banks like this. I began working for Experian in the 1970s, when credit reporting was a highly manual process where clients would call us and we would read their credit report back to them over the phone.

    I’ve held a number of positions within the company over the years and have seen it undergo tremendous growth and change. Some things, however, never change. After having worked at Experian for 46 years, I am proud to say data still powers everything we do here.

    Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.

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  • Helping “Credit Invisibles” Get Access To Financial Support with Alternative Data #ExperianStories

     

    I’m a Senior Product Strategy Manager in Experian’s Consumer Services department. I help banks connect people to the loans and credit cards they need, but my role is always changing because the world around us is changing.

    My team and I noticed how a whole generation is now thinking differently from other generations about the way they work and live. Rather than joining a large corporation, they make a living through a variety of platforms, like Uber, Airbnb and others — stringing together multiple jobs to make their income on their own timetable.

    The challenge for these people comes when they go to a bank to take out a loan, apply for a credit card or try to finance a car. The banks have difficultly gauging their risk or creditworthiness because they don’t have a traditional income source or because their credit footprint is difficult to trace. Banks refer to those types of individuals as “credit invisibles.”

    That’s where my team and I come in. We brainstorm ideas and create concepts for Experian to implement that will enable us to aggregate data from alternative sources — like utility bills or phone bills — to give banks a more accurate, robust view of each individual. Additionally, we create useful tools that help people manage their multiple income streams to ensure they’re able to meet their financial obligations each month.

    As the wealth of data in the world continues to grow, I see myself as an innovator who turns data into utility that works for people.

    I am constantly dreaming up new ways to connect banks with people who need a loan to feed their family, send their kids to college or buy a car for work. I want to help people take the guesswork out of taking each of life’s biggest steps. I want to empower them — through their data — to realize their dreams.

    Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.

     

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  • Experian Achieves FCA Authorisation

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    At Experian, we unlock the power of data to create opportunities for consumers, businesses and society. Every day, we help millions of people navigate key life moments, helping them to protect, manage and make the most of their data.

    On top of that, we continually work to make sure that we have all the right processes, policies, training, monitoring, governance and behaviours in place – to ensure that we treat all our customers fairly and avoid consumer detriment.

    As a result of our commitments and values, I am pleased to announce that Experian has achieved Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation.

    In 2014, the FCA became responsible for regulating all consumer credit and credit reference agencies in the UK and we applied for full FCA authorisation on 25 February 2016.

    The process has allowed us to stress-test our risk management structures and the plans we have in place to ensure fair outcomes for our customers. We have always looked to implement effective resolutions for people, to dispute what they identify as errors in their credit reports, through a responsive and fast system.

    It is an evolving and dynamic system and we have made many changes and improvements over the years. So we naturally welcomed the opportunity to discuss new proposals for enhancing and improving what we were already doing.

    Experian has always led the way in setting new benchmarks for best-practice, when it comes to both our operating standards and approach to data stewardship. As such, the authorisation from the FCA is important – and we are proud to have received the nod.

    This is another key milestone and we will continue to strive for the very highest standards of integrity, ensuring that we always focus on doing what’s right for our customers.

  • Empowering Americans Using Data for Good

    Alternative data opens up doors to financial access for consumers – and Experian has been at the forefront of collecting, using and advocating for the use of alternative data for many years.  This topic was explored and analyzed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in a hearing today in Charleston, West Virginia.

    Experian is a big advocate for full-file reporting, which means that we support the widespread reporting of alternative data—including, rental payments, utility payments and cellular telephone payments to name a few.  For a large segment of the population, the reporting of these types of payments could provide opportunities to establish and/or build a credit file.

    We believe consumer behavior has evolved and technology has advanced in a way that will soon enable Experian to facilitate lending to this population that we still call credit invisible. We are actively working to make these people visible, and to help them get access to responsible lending. For this reason, Experian supports enactment of the Credit Access and Inclusion Act (H.R. 435), which would allow consumers to benefit from the inclusion of alternative data into credit files.

    Consumers are at the heart of everything we do and this is why we chose to sponsor a two-year grant with the Credit Builders Alliance (CBA). This grant will enable us to work with affordable housing providers and public housing authorities to aid them in reporting rent payments to the credit bureaus in order to provide their low and moderate income residents with a valuable credit build opportunity. The project is ongoing and we are hopeful that this will help and empower many consumers and that this model of rental data reporting will continue to flourish in the future.

    Experian has conducted several studies looking at how the inclusion of alternative data could improve the lives of many Americans:

    • After Experian began incorporating on-time rental payments to credit files through Experian RentBureau in 2011, we released an analysis in July 2014 that revealed the inclusion of on-time rental payments to credit files helps unbanked consumers integrate into the mainstream banking system.
    • We also conducted a study on the impact of alternative reporting on-time utility payments in credit reports. Experian found that including these figures in credit reports would cause a 15 percent increase in those considered prime, which means those that pose little risk to lenders, as well as a 50 percent drop in the number of consumers considered to have a poor (sub-prime) credit history.

    In addition to these studies, other third parties have made similar findings.  One study by the Policy and Economic Research Council (PERC) and the Brookings Institution, found that when energy and utility companies report both positive and negative data, those without a credit history dropped to 5 million.

    Experian has demonstrated that incorporating new data sources into credit files is a positive step for consumers because it moves them from being unscorable to scorable, and we believe CFPB’s continued attention on this important initiative could help millions of Americans finally obtain the loans and credit that were previously out of reach.

    By building a comprehensive picture of data points, this can immeasurably help underserved populations, including young adults, minorities and immigrants, access newfound opportunities. Credit bureaus like Experian can then use this data for good by building profiles of these consumers, many of whom would be able to then obtain credit for the first time. It ultimately unlocks greater potential for our economy.

  • Using Data to Protect Homes from Electrical Fires & Stopping Energy Theft #ExperianStories

     

    I’m the Head of Utilities in Experian’s Energy and Water Sector.

    I handle a very specialized form of fraud called “energy theft,” where an individual or business steals electricity by tapping a line or bypassing the energy meter.

    Back in 2010, the process for handling this type of fraud was broken. Few companies bothered investigating instances of theft; they just accepted the pervasive issue as a cost of sale.

    This fraudulent activity was costing energy consumers approximately £30 per year, while putting countless homes and offices at risk, since faulty wiring for gas and electricity often leads to house fires or even explosions.

    Energy regulators decided the time had come for energy providers to crack down on the practice. My team and I at Experian were invited to a consultation to discuss how to use data and innovative techniques to end energy theft. The model we suggested was adopted as the preferred approach, and in the last year the project has been implemented across the entire industry in the UK.

    Our model combines data from the big energy companies with Experian’s own database to identify which residential or business properties may be stealing energy from the network. We can determine this by comparing energy consumption trends with information on how many people actually occupy the property. With both data sets, we can determine the amount of energy we believe the property should be consuming.

    If the energy consumption is lower than it should be on a particular piece of property, we look at fraud and credit data sets to see if the case qualifies as a genuine instance of low consumption (such as an older woman living alone), or if someone is perpetrating theft. We send that information back to the supplier so they can prioritize it for investigation.

    Through this program, I’ve helped protect countless homes and saved consumers from having to pay for energy they’re not using.

    I love that what I do not only gives me the opportunity to be creative in how I use data, but also helps protect businesses and everyday people.

    Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.

     

     

  • Data Drives Business Initiatives—Good Data, That Is

    Today we are living in a world of data.

    It is everywhere, affecting many aspects of not only how our businesses are run, but our individual lives. It is growing in value and becoming more significant with each year. When used correctly, it has the potential to make positive changes.

    The challenge is that while data is everywhere, we don’t always trust it. While many businesses today say that data is driving new opportunities around increasing revenue and better serving their clients, the level of accuracy within their data is lacking.

    According to new Experian Data Quality research, less than half of organizations globally trust their data to make important business decisions.

    That level of doubt is causing 52% of organizations to rely on educated guesses or gut feelings to make decisions based on their data. That lack of clarity is causing businesses to not only operate with less efficiency, but 73% of c-level executives indicate that inaccurate data is undermining their ability to provide an excellent customer experience.

    While many are making strides to try to improve the quality of data and the trust level, they are often hindered by departmental silos and a lack of consistency across data sources. Much of that comes down to basic communication and an ability to talk about data. Departments lack understanding of how information is used across an organization or what the true impact is of poor data.

    In my discussions across the industry, it is clear that data lacks a consistent, meaningful language. We tend to focus on the level of pure accuracy levels, rather than the effect to the business or the customer. Data strategies need to more closely relate to defined business goals, outcomes and use cases, rather than just a data policy that sits within a vacuum.

    In the year ahead, we expect that many businesses will make strides within their data management programs and improve the quality of data. However, for those programs to be successful, they need to tie to broader business objectives. In those instances, developing more trusted data will certainly pay off.

    To learn more, check out the new global data management benchmark report.

  • Using Data to Help People Pay Down Debts & Improve Credit in Brazil #ExperianStories

    I’m the Product Manager of Brazil’s Limpa Nome Online Recovery Portal, which was developed to help people manage and clear their debts.

    In Brazil, if you have debts, you are said to have a “nome sujo.” Literally translated, this means a “dirty name” — and that means good financial standing and access to credit are nearly impossible.

    My colleague and I met a Brazilian named Fabio who had a “nome sujo.” We sat down with him one afternoon to learn more about his situation. He told us he had built up debt with a national bank over six months. The debt was so unmanageable, he said, he was almost to the point where he could no longer pay it back.

    Fabio also told us how he spent at least four hours commuting to and from work each day, which limited his time outside of work. The thought of spending the limited time he had at a bank or collection agency trying to convince them to negotiate with the lender on his behalf seemed impossible. Understandingly, Fabio was enduring many sleepless nights.

    He tried searching on Google for help and came across Limpa Nome from Serasa Experian. He enrolled on our website, where he could view the debt he owed to the lender as well as proposals to make a settlement of dispute with the bank.

    Because Fabio had made a settlement proposal through Experian’s Limpa Nome website, the bank made an exception for him, allowing him to pay R$70 instead of R$1,000 each month until his debt was paid off.

    Within 10 minutes, Fabio’s problems were solved and his name was once again a “limpa nome” — a clear name. Our tool helped remove his financial burden and enabled him to have good credit to now be able to buy a house or a car.

    Using Experian’s Limpa Nome Online Recovery Portal, my team and I are using data to help give people like Fabio the tools to re-establish a good financial standing so they can pursue their dreams.

    Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.

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