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While the credit reporting industry is designed to help lenders and creditors minimize risk and assess consumers’ ability and willingness to repay outstanding debt, let’s be clear: the consumer is our main priority. Every lending decision and action is made with the consumers’ best interest in mind. Because consumers rely on credit and other loan products to purchase homes and cars, pay for college, afford goods and services, and even bridge the gap during emergencies, the credit reporting industry has been at the forefront of broadening access to fair and affordable financial resources.   Risk-based pricing has made it possible for more consumers to access credit, particularly those with limited-to-no credit history or subprime credit profiles. Previously, lenders may have opted not to extend credit to consumers considered higher risk; but more and more, lenders are empowered to tailor borrowing terms based on a consumer’s credit history. In addition, because lenders don’t have to absorb unforeseen risk, lower borrowing costs can be maintained for all consumers. Experian has long advocated for expanded data sources, such as rent and utilities payments, to be incorporated onto consumer credit reports and considered in lending decisions. In 2019, we launched a product  that empowers consumers to add positive payment history for utilities, telecoms and video streaming services—and eventually residential rent—directly into their Experian credit report. Our efforts coincide with legislation, such as S.2417 – the Credit Access and Inclusion Act, introduced by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) in 2021, which encourages the reporting of consumer payment history, including rent, utilities, and telecom services, to the nationwide credit reporting agencies. This is key to broadening access to fair and affordable credit for underserved consumers.  The industry needs to continue to explore other avenues that can help consumers improve their financial health, such as the role that buy now, pay later information can play in increasing financial inclusion. Empowering consumers to take control Beyond legislation or the use of expanded data, many non-profit and community based organizations are championing initiatives that drive greater financial inclusion. Organizations such as Inclusiv, Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, HomeFree-USA, National Urban League and the Society for Financial Education & Personal Development, among others, are helping individuals and households from underserved communities navigate the mainstream financial system and take control of their financial lives. Experian and other financial institutions are partnering with non-profit organizations with deep roots in communities, allowing them to connect with community leaders and individuals on a more personal level. Every individual enters the credit ecosystem at a different stage so it’s important that banks and financial institutions listen to the specific challenges they’re experiencing. For example, individuals may be searching for credit monitoring and alerts, budgeting tools or ways to put more money back into their wallets, such as finding cost-efficient options for auto insurance. Providing individuals and households with the financial knowledge and access to tools better positions them to become financially independent. The credit reporting industry continues to provide more resources and transparency to help improve consumers’ financial health. All individuals deserve the opportunity to establish and build their credit so they are able to elevate and maintain their financial status.

At Experian, we’re proud to observe Veterans Day and celebrate the contributions of our teammates and their families who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. This year, we’re especially excited to be ranked #20 on Forbes’ 2024 Best Employers for Veterans list. The list is based on input from over 24,000 veterans who were surveyed by Statista. These veterans, from the Armed Forces, Reserves, and National Guard, work for companies with more than 1,000 employees. They rated their employers on factors like work atmosphere, salary, health benefits, career development, and programs specifically designed for veterans. We’re grateful for how our Veterans Employee Resource Group (ERG) supports the military community, from participating in events like Wreaths Across America, Carry the Load, and the Murph Challenge, to building wheelchair ramps for veterans’ homes. The Veterans ERG just completed its 20th ramp last month. With a goal of bringing Financial Power to All™, Experian provides free credit reporting to active-duty members and supports financial literacy and education through our partnerships with Support the Enlisted Project (STEP) and Operation HOPE. As part of our observance of Veterans Day, we invite veterans to join us for this week’s #CreditChat, “Transitioning to Civilian Life: Financial Considerations for Veterans” on Wednesday, November 14, from 3–4 p.m. ET. Thank you to all who have served our country. And we thank our veteran colleagues who bring their leadership, dedication and passion to Experian every day.

In the aftermath of a natural disaster, the furthest thing from your mind is your personal finances, and rightfully so. Ensuring the safety of family and friends, as well as securing shelter, food and water, all take precedent. However, once you’ve addressed your most immediate concerns, understanding your financial health can help protect you during these challenging times. While a natural or declared disaster, in itself, doesn't directly impact your financial health, it can have an indirect impact by making it harder to pay your bills. Potential income disruption caused by the disaster, like job loss or damage to your property, can potentially lead to late payments and negatively impact your credit, if not managed properly. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to protect your financial health. Contact your lenders The financial effects of a natural disaster can be devastating in a variety of ways. If your car or home is damaged or destroyed, and insurance won't cover some or all of it, you may get saddled with bills or take on new debt. Lack of transportation may affect your ability to get to or perform your job. You might be injured and face medical bills, or you could have to miss work to take care of family or your home in the aftermath. Although it's ideal to prepare your finances for emergencies before a natural disaster hits, it's not always possible. If you’re facing a disaster, you’ll want to be as proactive as possible to protect your credit and finances. To the best of your ability, it’s important to continue making your monthly bill payments on time. Paying at least the minimum payment on your accounts will help you protect your credit. However, if you’re unable to make your payments, it’s important to take action immediately. Contact your lenders and credit card issuers as soon as possible to ask about hardship options. Don't wait until you've already missed a payment. In some cases, you won't be eligible for hardship options unless you contact lenders before the payment is due. In addition to contacting your lenders and creditors, reach out to your utility, mobile phone and cable providers, as well as any other monthly services you pay for, to see if they can offer flexible payment options. Monitoring your credit is key Unfortunately, times of crisis are times when fraudsters and scammers work hard to take advantage of people. Be sure to regularly check your credit with all three nationwide credit reporting agencies (NCRAs) during this time. You can access a free weekly credit report from all three NCRAs at annualcreditreport.com. Review your credit report carefully, looking for any inaccuracies or suspicious activity. If you find anything you believe to be inaccurate, you can dispute the information with the credit reporting agency where you found the information. Disputing information on your credit report is free and easy to do online, by phone or by mail. Recovery Plan As you recover from disaster and begin to rebuild your life, savings and possibly your home, know there is a host of resources and programs available to help, and creditors and utility providers will often grant hardship relief. By reaching out to creditors quickly and monitoring your credit report, you can protect your credit and bounce back from a disaster with your credit score intact.

People rely on credit cards, personal loans, mortgages and auto loans, among other financial products to buy homes, fund college educations, weather temporary income disruptions and finance billions of daily transactions for goods and services. Credit is the cornerstone of the pursuit of our financial ambitions. That’s why the credit reporting industry is deeply committed to broadening access to fair and affordable financial resources for all consumers, particularly for individuals and households from underserved communities. The commitment is underscored by the continual effort to evolve the credit reporting system and incorporate new data sets to provide lenders a more comprehensive view of consumers’ ability and capacity to repay outstanding debt. Although progress has been made to extend credit to more prospective borrowers across the risk spectrum, if we want to continue to broaden the scope, we need to encourage the consistent reporting of additional predictive data sources to help lenders assess consumers’ creditworthiness. A proven track record but there’s more work to do Over the past century, the credit reporting industry transitioned from an opaque system founded on relationships to one rooted in data. Lenders lean on past payment history on similar loans (i.e., auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, etc.) as a reliable predictor of a borrower’s future loan payment performance—it’s a way for them to mitigate risk and say “yes” to more borrowers.   And it works. The comprehensive reporting of past loan performance, coupled with increasingly sophisticated statistical prediction models, as well as the adoption of risk-based pricing, accelerated the extension of credit to more consumers. Yet, according to research from Experian and Oliver Wyman, millions of Americans lack access to mainstream credit because they are credit invisible, unscorable or have a subprime credit score. It’s particularly challenging for younger individuals, newly arrived immigrants and historically underserved communities, such as racial and ethnic minorities. At times it can be a catch-22; in order to get credit, you have to have credit. More predictive data is key At Experian, we’ve long understood that expanding the universe of creditworthy borrowers requires more data. In addition to some of the more conventional tradelines, such as mortgages, auto loans and credit cards, we have to explore expanded data sources that are predictive of a prospective borrower’s credit risk. For instance, more consumers are using buy now, pay later (BNPL) products, and nearly every consumer makes recurring monthly payments for rent, utilities, cell phones and even video streaming services, yet oftentimes, these data points are not consistently reported to the credit reporting agencies nor considered during lending decisions. Collectively, the industry and regulators, need to do more to encourage the consistent reporting and inclusion of expanded data onto consumers’ credit reports.    In fact, based on our research, we’ve found that some of the aforementioned expanded data sources can empower lenders to assess the credit risk of a significantly larger pool of consumers. These expanded data sources have been shown to be highly accurate predictors of future loan payment behavior. And, when expanded data is combined with advanced analytics, up to 96% of the population can be scored, including an estimated 65% of credit invisibles.1 Broadening access to fair and affordable credit for more consumers means leaning into combining conventional tradelines with expanded Fair Credit Report Act-regulated data sources. The more information lenders have available to them about prospective borrowers’ past payment performance the more empowered they are to minimize risk and more confidently extend credit. Pushing for more data is the best path forward.

In an era where financial transactions occur at the click of a button, the significance of accurately verifying and authenticating consumers’ identities cannot be overstated. From online purchases to mobile banking, ensuring secure and reliable digital connections and safeguarding consumers’ information are table stakes for any business operating in the digital ecosystem. Unfortunately, some advocacy groups are calling for stricter regulatory guidelines that may impede business’ ability to effectively and efficiently protect a consumer’s financial information and identity. We’re, of course, referring to the push to classify credit header data— identifying information, such as name, current and former addresses, phone number and Social Security number, found at the top of credit reports—as a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Subjecting credit header information to the FCRA will unnecessarily limit its permitted use, and effectively make it more difficult—and potentially impossible—for banks and other businesses to use the information to authenticate and verify consumers’ identities. It’s an unintended consequence that will surely compromise the security of our digital identities.  Foundational to fraud prevention Credit header data plays a pivotal role in helping businesses detect suspicious activity and stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes. With credit header information, banks and other financial institutions cross-reference loan applications against transactions from hundreds of thousands of contributors to spot anomalies and thwart fraudsters before they inflict harm. In fact, many of the industry’s most advanced fraud prevention tools and signals rely on credit header data to verify the legitimacy of any given transaction. Keep in mind, the transactions we’re referring to are transactions of consequence. For instance, opening a new bank account, applying for a loan or transferring money. This level of activity carries inherent risk, and without proper vigilance, could result in significant financial or reputational harm to consumers and businesses. But it’s not only lenders that leverage credit header data, the use cases for credit header data are broad. Government agencies and businesses in the public sector, law enforcement, and some pharmacies use the information to issue one-time passcodes for identification purposes, find missing persons, or verify consumers’ identities prior to prescriptions being filled. Credit header data is already regulated Some of the concern surrounding credit header data centers on consumer privacy, and rightfully so. Protecting consumers’ privacy should be central to the use of sensitive information; however, credit header data is already regulated by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. In fact, for more than 25 years, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act specifically provides that the permissible use of credit header data includes fraud prevention, while also mandating consumer privacy and data protection. Subjecting credit header data to additional FCRA regulation, which does not clearly allow for fraud prevention, could make it impractical or impossible for many businesses to use it for that purpose.  Not only is additional regulation unnecessary, but it potentially creates a contradictory web of regulations that increases the compliance burden and confusion for many businesses. This ultimately thwarts the purpose of GLBA by delaying fraud prevention efforts and potentially raising costs for consumers. Credit header data is far more than information included at the top of consumers’ credit reports, it is a linchpin that powers many of the most advanced fraud prevention and identify verification tools in the market. Before any further regulation is considered, we have to acknowledge the role that credit header data plays in keeping consumers’ information safe and how any changes may impact the safety and soundness of our digital economy.

Experian continues to affirm its leadership in financial technology, earning the 7th spot on the 2024 IDC FinTech Rankings. This is the third consecutive year that the company has ranked among the top 10 providers, reinforcing its position as a key player in the FinTech space. The IDC FinTech Rankings assess the top 100 financial technology providers based on revenues generated in 2023 from financial services and FinTech sectors. In addition to this notable achievement, Experian has been awarded the 2024 IDC Real Results Award for Bank Deposit Transformation. This award highlights Experian's innovation in driving measurable and impactful changes within the financial services industry. The recognition is particularly focused on the company’s success in helping banks transform their deposit processes through advanced fraud prevention technologies. Experian's Ascend Fraud Sandbox: A Game-Changer A key factor behind this award is Experian's Ascend Fraud Sandbox, a groundbreaking tool that offers financial institutions a comprehensive platform for fraud detection and prevention. The Ascend Fraud Sandbox empowers organizations to analyze data, identify new fraud patterns, and quickly build, test, and deploy models. This technology enables banks to enhance their fraud detection capabilities, leading to higher approval rates for online deposit accounts and reduced fraud-related losses. The sandbox operates with over 10 billion identity and fraud events, which include applications, login activities, and transactions. It also continuously incorporates tens of millions of new events each day. This expansive dataset allows banks to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts, especially those driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Experian's success in Bank Deposit Transformation demonstrates the company’s ability to help financial institutions improve their processes while simultaneously enhancing fraud protection. By providing advanced fraud-prevention and identity-protection technologies, Experian enables its customers to optimize their operations, reduce risks, and achieve better financial outcomes. Recognition of Experian's Innovation This dual recognition—ranking 7th in the IDC FinTech Rankings and winning the Real Results Award—further solidifies Experian’s standing as a leader in technology. These accolades underscore its capacity to offer data, technology, and scalable solutions that allow financial institutions to make informed business decisions at the necessary speed to remain competitive in an evolving market. Now in its 21st year, the IDC FinTech Rankings evaluate technology providers based on the revenue they generate from financial institutions, including banks, insurers, and capital markets firms. With both the FinTech Rankings and the Real Results Award in hand, Experian continues to deliver innovative solutions that help financial institutions navigate the complexities of modern finance with confidence.

Even though 26 states now have a personal finance course as a requirement for high school graduation, 40 percent of college students do not feel they have enough knowledge about how to manage money. It’s a challenge that the Center for Financial Advancement® (CFA) Credit Academy addresses with participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). A collaboration between Experian and HomeFree-USA, the program  culminates in the #IYKYK (If You Know You Know) Pitch Competition and a couple hundred new knowledge ambassadors about financial health and credit. Here, competition finalists share their advice for students as they hit campus for a new school year: MALAYA MELTON, Alabama State University Advice I'll give to incoming freshmen is to try to apply for scholarships. It takes some of the burden off. For me, I took about two years making sure that I got the right amount of scholarships before coming to school, because I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford it. My family won't be able to afford it. So, try to be very serious about applying for scholarships, and apply to internships that also get you money that you can use towards school or your personal development. JAZMIN FELIZ ORELLANA, Bowie State University Don't take out loans if you don't have to. I think many freshmen forget that they'll have to pay off those loans once they graduate after a certain time, and that definitely can affect their credit, especially if they're not able to pay for it. OLUWATOSIN OYEKEYE, Alabama State University Save your money, save your money, save your money. It's okay to go to a college in your hometown. Save as much money as you can, because you really don't know where you'll need it. If you get that credit card, make sure that you're paying all the payments on time. Do not wait till the last minute to pay it. PHILIP OMO-TAIGA, North Carolina A&T State University Budgeting. I think that's really what plays into the whole thing of credit, which is there obviously to help you. But it can also go really, really bad. When you think about what it takes to find that healthy balance, you got to learn how to budget because you may go through a period where you're not working. So now it's like, "Okay, now I got to leverage this money that I maybe have saved up. Maybe think about my credit so that I'm not burying myself into a hole. I'm not working, so there's no way I can pay it down." I think when it comes to finding that healthy medium, budgeting is definitely key. CALVIN CHARLES III, Bowie State University A secure credit card. I think freshman year is a great way to enter college (with one) because you're going to have items and things that you are going to have to pay for anyway. Why not begin building your credit there? I can personally say my first credit card I opened at 18, so that gave me the years of credit history. ESANTE-JOY MCINTYRE, North Carolina A&T State University It is never really how you start, but it's how you finish. Freshman year I might not have that scholarship. But I promise you by sophomore year I had $10,000 from outside scholarships, I had $10,000 from doing pitch competitions, $5,000 from here, from there. So, don't give up on the idea of searching. If you are able to search, you'll find it. Those opportunities and resources are out there, and Experian is just a testament to that.

More than two years ago, Experian expanded its consumer offerings to provide a free auto insurance comparison shopping service.  As part of our mission of Financial Power to All™, Experian Consumer Services is continuously working to develop new products, services and features that help consumers reach their financial goals. Providing a convenient way for consumers to potentially find a better auto insurance rate on their current policy fit this bill. We’ve enhanced the service now offering a free Ongoing Rate Monitoring feature so Experian members never have to shop for auto insurance again. After enrolling in a free or paid Experian membership, the Experian Insurance Marketplace delivers at no cost, real-time, tailored rates from more than 40 top insurance providers. The Ongoing Rate Monitoring feature will continuously monitor rates and alert members if there is a better deal available on an ongoing basis. To date, Experian has saved members more than $800[i] on their current insurance policy. The marketplace became available at a critical time when rising inflation and interest rates were significantly impacting consumers’ finances – and it’s still the case today. One of the common expenses that has reportedly risen over the past 1-2 years the most is auto insurance by approximately 20 percent. Thus, it’s no surprise a recent Experian consumer survey shows 3 out of 4 of respondents are worried rates will increase in the next 12 months. We’re proud to be able to address consumer needs and deliver free resources like our marketplace that financially empowers our members. Consumers can also shop at the marketplace for home and renter insurance.  To access the marketplace, click here. [i] Results will vary and some may not see savings. Average savings of $828 per year for customers who switched and saved with Experian from Jan. 1, 2022 to Mar. 31, 2024. Savings based on customers’ self-reported prior premium.  Experian offers insurance from a network of top-rated insurance companies through its licensed subsidiary, Gabi Personal Insurance Agency, Inc.

Experian North America has once again proven its commitment to creating an exceptional workplace, earning a coveted spot on Fortune’s 2024 “Best Workplaces in Technology” list. This prestigious recognition showcases Experian’s dedication to cultivating a vibrant, innovative and inclusive culture where employees thrive. By prioritizing personal growth, diversity and overall well-being, Experian continues to stand out as a leader in the tech industry, ensuring its workforce remains at the heart of its success. A Testament to Experian’s Workplace Culture The Fortune Best Workplaces in Technology™ list, developed in partnership with Great Place to Work®, was based on surveys from more than 870,000 employees across various industries. Feedback captured factors like trust, respect, fairness and credibility, showcasing Experian’s efforts to build a culture where employees feel empowered and engaged. Innovation and Inclusivity Experian’s inclusion in the Large Workplace category reflects its commitment to fostering a collaborative environment. The company supports diversity through partnerships with AfroTech, Grace Hopper, Lesbians Who Tech and Out In Tech, further demonstrating its dedication to inclusivity. A Year of Notable Achievements In addition to the Fortune recognition, Experian earned a silver medal for innovation from Datos Insights and ranked 7th on the 2024 IDC FinTech Rankings, solidifying its leadership in data and technology. With more than 22,500 employees globally, Experian remains dedicated to innovation, employee development and helping businesses and consumers unlock opportunities.