JR TOC Review

In my role as Chief Sustainability Officer at Experian, I often hear from communities that feel that they’re not seen or heard. That they’re marginalized. I’m proud that our United for Financial Health (UFH) program can be a global catalyst towards financial inclusion. This is the kind of work UFH is supporting with two new partners: Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) and True Colors United. Founded by Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta, Born This Way Foundation supports youth mental health and created Channel Kindness, a digital storytelling platform. Experian is proud to support an expansion of Channel Kindness, which will be a safe space for young people to reflect on significant financial days throughout the year such as college graduation, tax day and a #BeKind21 Campaign event focusing on the role kindness plays in a person’s financial wellness. True Colors United was founded by Cyndi Lauper, and aims to end homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth. We will collaborate with them to create financial literacy resources to help this “invisible” community overcome barriers to fair and equitable access to credit and financial tools. These new partnerships are just a couple examples of our support for the LGBTQ+ community. Earlier this year, we achieved a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in the U.S., making Experian a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality for the fourth consecutive year. We also received a Silver Award from Stonewall for our commitment to inclusion of LGBTQ people in the workplace. We provide a process to assist trans and non-binary consumers with name changes to their Experian credit reports. During Pride Month, our weekly Twitter #Creditchat addressed important financial topics such as Financial Tips for Same Sex Couples and the LGBTQ+ Community. We look forward to sharing stories from Channel Kindness and the resources from True Colors United. To learn more about Experian’s commitment to financial empowerment for all, check out The Power of You: 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report.

During Disability Pride Month, we are especially proud and hopeful by our most recent honor: Experian earned a score of 100 out of a possible 100 in the Disability Equality Index® (DEI). The DEI is the world’s most comprehensive benchmarking tool for the Fortune 1000 and Am Law 2001 to measure disability workplace inclusion against competitors. Several of our colleagues were on hand at the recent 2022 Disabilty:IN Conference to pick up our award. We improved from our score of 90 last year, and are considered a Best Workplace for Disability Inclusion. We’re honored to partner with two of the community’s leading organizations, Disability:IN and the National Disability Institute towards our commitment to financial empowerment for people with disabilities. We’re hosting conversations like this one to raise awareness of the barriers and explore solutions to financial inclusion. Experian is powering the credit resource page of the Financial Resilience Center so consumers have information at their fingertips. People with disabilities represent over one billion people across the globe. As one of our colleagues who represented Experian on a panel about innovation at the 2022 Disability:IN Conference explains, disability is a natural part of the human experience, and it crosses lines of age, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and religion. It’s in that spirit that we held a Global Hackathon, challenging our colleagues to create future products and services that can further the mission of financial inclusion and equity for communities worldwide. As co-executive sponsors of Experian’s ASPIRE employee resource group, which advocates for teammates with disabilities, we’re proud to have our progress acknowledged. And we’re hopeful because while we know the work of inclusion will never be done, the Disability Equality Index indicates we’re evolving in the right direction. Learn more about Experian’s commitment to creating a better tomorrow for the communities in which we live and work in The Power of You: 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report. Hear from Experian’s Roselyn M. about our culture of inclusion: 

As any online merchant knows, the past few years have seen a rapid increase in digital transactions but unfortunately, fraudsters have adapted quickly and taken advantage of this. With booming online sales, retailers strive to provide a seamless shopping experience while simultaneously recognizing legitimate customers and keeping an eye out for fraud. It’s a balancing act that becomes more perilous as transaction volumes grow. Perhaps one of the most frustrating challenges for online merchants is false declines. In fact, Aite-Novarica Group’s The E-Commerce Fraud Enigma: The Quest to Maximize Revenue While Minimizing Fraud Report found the average false decline rate is 1.16%. With over $960 billion in U.S. online sales in 2021, lost sales resulting from false declines is substantial, totaling more than $11 billion. False declines occur when a good customer is suspected of fraud and then prevented from completing a purchase. This happens when a company’s fraud prevention solution provides inadequate insight into the identity of the customer, flagging them as a potential bad actor. The result is a missed sale for the business and a frustrating transaction and experience for the customer. Merchants use a variety of tools to prevent fraud while ensuring they minimize friction during the purchase experience, but many legacy fraud solutions fail to provide the confidence needed to sufficiently assess the risk of the identity presented by the customer. As identities become more complex, Experian recognizes that identity is personal. We are committed to creating new and innovative solutions to manage this complexity, and to addressing the constantly evolving opportunities for fraud that come along with it. Our newest offering, Experian Link, is the most recent example. It allows merchants to augment their real-time payment risk decisions with a perspective that links customer identity to the credit card being presented for payment. Aite-Novarica’s report showed that nearly half of the e-commerce merchants surveyed are tolerating fraud rates between 20 and 49 basis points. Experian Link can improve that as it provides a positive match rate of 85% for major credit card brands, and when an identity is verified against a credit card, fraud rates can drop to as low as 10 basis points with no added customer friction. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, online merchants need the right tools to help them meet consumer expectations and support their growth now and in the future. Leveraging a strong identity verification solution like Experian Link in the authorization process will be critical for merchants, providing additional data that paints a more complete picture of their customer and leads to fewer false declines. For more information on how Experian Link helps businesses enhance their identity verification solutions, please visit https://www.experian.com/business/products/experian-link.

Consumers generate hundreds, if not thousands, of digital interactions every day when they do things like shop on the internet, play games, manage their finances or stream entertainment. As businesses look to differentiate their brands and create positive consumer experiences, they need to reconcile these data points. Proper reconciliation of identity leads to insightful data that helps augment the way brands market to consumers, manage risk, and deliver secure, personalized experiences. Fulfilling the promise of identity can be a challenge, though, given the massive volumes of data that these consumer interactions generate, and the need to ensure privacy-compliant use. To help companies meet this challenge, Experian introduced an integrated suite of identity solutions, products and services called Experian Identity. It combines Experian’s sophisticated information technology systems and vast accumulation of consumer data to enable businesses to engage with consumers on a more perceptive, personalized basis. This recent Global News Blog entry addresses this topic well. Experian Identity is an ideal choice for companies that need identity resolution and fraud management solutions to further strengthen their customer relationships. One example of the innovative use of identity data is how it can give people with limited-to-no credit history access to a variety of useful financial instruments. By incorporating expanded data sources that contain identity information, such as rent, utilities, telecom, and video streaming services, as well as buy now, pay later data into credit reports, consumers who are underrepresented in the current credit reporting system can provide a more comprehensive view into their ability and willingness to repay outstanding debt. Lastly, Experian Identity is laser-focused on compliance for consumer consent and control around identity. A recent advertorial in the news outlet AXIOS offers more background on how businesses can use identity data to stay relevant with their target audiences and create a positive and safe consumer experience. Click here to read more. For more information on how Experian Identity helps optimize identity solutions, visit www.experian.com/identity-solutions. To learn how making identities personal builds trust and helps organizations create improved experiences for consumers and businesses, download the Making Identities Personal white paper.

Back in October 2021, we announced our partnership with Code First Girls, who teach women to code for free and develops female talent in tech. We have shared their journey where four female students worked as paid interns with Experian while studying for their Code First Girls’ Nanodegree for the last nine months. My colleagues in the UK will be continuing the partnership with Code First Girls this year. As part of the partnership, Experian will be sponsoring four courses in Python and Data, and our employees are volunteering to co-lead these courses. Experian will also be sponsoring 10 Code First Girls’ Nanodegrees, with the aim of hiring these 10 graduates via our Software Engineering graduate programme in the UK. The four interns who recently completed their internships with us came from diverse backgrounds and introduced fresh perspectives. They've helped to drive our financial inclusion agenda by working on our United for Financial Health programme in South Africa and Italy, amongst other innovative projects. Watch the videos where our interns talked about their internship experience: Nicole Ngina, born, raised and currently in Kenya, and a recent diploma graduate of Strathmore University where she studied Business Information Technology. Betty Abate, originally from Ethiopia but grew up in the UK. Chelsi Goliath, a Computer Science student from South Africa. Kamile Sudziute, originally from Lithuania, but studied in London, where she just graduated from King’s College London with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. We are committed to developing women in tech and I’m pleased to welcome more talented young women to start their careers in tech with us. This year’s extension of our partnership with Code First Girls enables us to create a better tomorrow for more women to kickstart their careers in tech. Stay tuned for more updates on our journey with Code First Girls by following us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mental health problems remain a huge issue, so it’s essential that employers are set up to support their employees who may be struggling. Also every organisation depends on having healthy and productive employees, with valued and supported staff far more likely to perform better and achieve peak performance. At Experian we have been working hard to ensure everyone can get that support, and that we are constantly evolving and improving. That’s why I’m proud to announce that we have been recognised with a Gold Award in Mind’s sixth annual Workplace Wellbeing Index. I think this is a huge achievement as it signifies the progress we’ve already made as an organisation in recent years – ensuring mental health is embedded into our policies and practices, and demonstrating our long-term and deep commitment to our employees’ mental health. Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index is a benchmark of best policy and practice, celebrating the good work employers are doing to promote and support positive mental health, and importantly also providing key recommendations on the specific areas where there is room to improve. This award demonstrates that we are on the right track, but we won’t stop here. We’re always looking for new ways to do things and to improve as a business. We are committed to driving towards even better ways of working, where supporting the mental health of our people is a fundamental part of everyday business. Andrew is the UK & Ireland Mental Health Sponsor & Managing Director of Experian Data Quality