Margin test

Nearly 50 million consumers have a nonexistent or limited credit history. That is a major problem in need of a world-changing idea. Experian, in its ongoing efforts to promote financial equity and inclusion, introduced a new offering last year that directly addresses this problem: Experian Go™. This free program empowers “credit invisibles” to establish their financial identity within minutes. And it has already helped tens of thousands of consumers who are new to credit establish an Experian credit report, a critical first step to things like buying a car or renting an apartment. Now Experian Go has been recognized with the prestigious Fast Company 2023 World Changing Ideas Award for the company’s use of innovative technology to promote financial inclusion. Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award celebrates the most impactful and innovative ideas that have the “potential to drive true change.” The award seeks to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better, with the goal of honoring ingenuity and fostering innovation. Experian Go addresses a crucial need by providing individuals with no credit history with the tools necessary to participate in the financial system and better manage their credit. Experian Go’s award follows last year’s recognition of Experian Boost®, a first-of-its-kind feature designed to help consumers improve their credit profile and thrive financially, in Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards. Millions of people have connected to Experian Boost to improve their FICO® Score by reporting their on-time utility, telecom/phone, rent and video streaming service payments. By giving consumers control over their credit, they can make real, substantial progress in their financial health journey by getting “credit” for paying bills on time. The innovative solution tackles inequity and exclusion from the credit economy, enabling consumers to add positive payment history directly into their Experian credit file and potentially boost their FICO® Score instantly. At Experian, we believe that technology has the power to do many things, and changing the world is one of them. Experian Go is part of our mission to help provide financial inclusion for all, and we look forward to creating more innovative products that focus on helping people.

We’re very proud to have been awarded a top 75 score in the third edition of Europe’s Climate Leaders, which is compiled by The Financial Times in partnership with Statista, in recognition of our success in reducing our carbon emissions and our commitment to tackling climate change. The awards provide each company listed with a score based on their performance in cutting, and reporting transparently on, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as collaboration with environmental reporting group CDP and the Science Based Targets initiative. Our score acknowledges Experian’s ongoing commitment to reducing our environmental footprint, as we work towards our target of becoming carbon neutral in our own operations by 2030. In 2022 we continued our reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and achieved a 44% reduction since 2019, as we work towards our science-based target to achieve a 50% reduction by 2030. We’re also continuing to engage with our suppliers in order to reduce the level of our scope 3 emissions through the footprint of the products and services we buy. We want to further our ambition and we are currently developing our Net Zero Transition Plan, to decarbonise our operations even further.

Experian research shows more than a quarter of Black and Hispanic consumers are invisible to the credit market, compared to 16% of Asian and White consumers. This is a significant gap that all of us can improve. At our North American headquarters, a group of young scholars took the lead on finding solutions. Four teams representing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) visited our campus and shared their creativity and personal stories with us in the finale of the inaugural #IYKYK Hackathon. The Hackathon was the culmination of a six-month Center for Financial Advancement® Credit Academy, created in partnership with HomeFree-USA. Through live sessions with Experian credit education experts and self-paced content, more than 250 scholars from 14 HBCUs learned about credit, financial tools, and how to build generational wealth through steps like homeownership. The teams from Alabama State University, Fisk University, Morgan State University and Shaw University made it to the finals and presented their ideas for the next best credit education program for their peers. Left to right, top to bottom: Fisk University, Morgan State University, Shaw University and Alabama State University In addition to their presentations, what was also impressive was the inclusivity in participation. Just at the finals alone, these student leaders represented six countries, eight different languages, the LGBTQ+ community, different faiths, and more. The “Credit Stingers” from Alabama State University took home the prize, a $40,000 scholarship for their idea of a gamified app called “Credit Rush.” In order to overcome obstacles, students watch a video or take a quiz about credit in order to advance to higher levels. Other features of “Credit Rush” include the “Hive,” a library of credit education materials, chat, daily calendar functions and more. The “Credit Stingers” from Alabama State University took home the prize, a $40,000 scholarship for their idea of a gamified app called “Credit Rush.” Many of the student leaders are already putting what they’ve learned into practice. They shared how they’ve been able to rent their own apartments for the first time, help their recently immigrated family members establish their credit identities, and make decisions that will help them eventually buy a home. They showed immense passion. They are committed to being knowledge ambassadors, sharing information about credit with their classmates, families and friends, making their communities the true winners of this program.

Our people play a vital role in innovating new ways to better serve our customers, developing new technologies that advance inclusion and financial growth for consumers while helping other team members along the way. Our purpose-driven culture is clearly changing the game. Recognized by Fortune as one of America’s Most Innovative Companies, we’re pioneering innovations to help consumers navigate the complicated road to financial freedom. First, there’s Experian Boost™, our innovative product that allows people to improve credit scores by adding payment records to their profiles of previously untracked expenses such as utilities, mobile phone payments and streaming services. And now we’ve created a way to get rent payment histories into credit reports as well. We also changed the game with our new Experian Go™ product that enables those with no credit history to create a credit report. This program opens the front door to the financial ecosystem for millions of consumers by helping them establish their financial identity and move from credit invisible to scoreable. These products are just a few examples of how our company culture embraces change and enables us to innovate. We focus on problems that need to be solved and put the energy and resources behind developing solutions that solve them. And the industry recognition continues, which represents a validation of the culture of innovation we’ve built, with feedback coming from our employees, customers, and other industry experts.  Other wins include: The 2023 BIG Innovation Awards that recognized the company for delivering innovative products, such as Experian Go™, that help consumers thrive financially Experian Boost™ was selected for Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards.  We were named a Great Place to Work’s Best Workplaces for Parents in 2022 and Top 30 Employer for Working Families in 2022. These are merely steps in our journey. Stay tuned for what’s next.

Experian’s culture of innovation continues to be a remarkable differentiator for our people, products and solutions. Our innovation is driven by the confluence of data with creative, critical thinking that enables each worker and the company as a whole to tackle complex problems. Our capability to collect, analyze and employ data lies at the very heart of our business at Experian. We go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that our sources, models, and processes are unimpeachable. Given Experian’s decades-long background in curating massive amounts of data, knowing the proper questions to ask regarding how to collect, analyze, and manage data is vital. Answering those questions lies at the heart of an article that recently appeared in the HBR (Harvard Business Review) Guide to Critical Thinking book to help business leaders navigate their most challenging issues. The article highlights Experian Boost and our work in the cloud as key innovations that help our customers, and poses four critical questions that businesses must ask themselves about their use of data to ensure positive outcomes: 1. How was the data sourced?The quality and care with which data is collected varies widely. Poor-quality data, or data used in the wrong context, can actually be worse than no data at all. Managers shouldn’t just assume their data is accurate and of good quality. Auditing data transactions is becoming as common as auditing financial transactions. 2. How was the data analyzed?Even when data is accurate and well maintained, the quality of analytic models can vary widely. Errors and lapses are relatively common and can lead to serious consequences. At Experian, we constantly scrutinize our models to ensure they achieve their specific objectives and their output reflects the real world. 3. What doesn’t the data tell us?Data models are a lot like humans: they tend to base judgments on the most readily available information — sometimes, the data you don’t have can affect decision making as much as the data you possess. And human designers often pass it on to automated systems. In the article, Experian Boost is cited as an example of adding key data to a credit history to help “thin-file” consumers raise their scores to help qualify them to buy a car, rent an apartment, or get a credit card. 4. How can we gain full advantage from the data? For example, by using it to redesign products, services or business models.Companies have learned how data can help run business more efficiently by automating processes, predicting when machines need maintenance, and improving customer service. Real opportunities come when data enables a company to completely re-imagine its business. We’ve leveraged the cloud to shift from only delivering processed data in credit reports to a service that gives our customers near real-time access to far more granular data. That may seem like a subtle transition, but it’s become one of the fastest-growing parts of Experian’s business. Check out the full article, “Data-Driven Decisions Start with These 4 Questions,” written by Eric Haller, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Identity, Fraud & DataLabs at Experian, and Greg Satell, an international keynote speaker, adviser and bestselling author.