The first 24 hours of a Data Breach Response are the most critical and we have the most important seven steps to insure that your organization does not go off track. A data breach of personal identity information or protected healthcare information is a breach of trust.  Employees, patients, consumers or even partners are put at risk if their information is disclosed during a security incident. In this session Experian’s data breach experts walked attendees through the first steps in the response process that will insure businesses do not run into trouble with the affected parties, the media and regulators. We included specific examples of what to do and how to be successful in your response. We touched on the key things to avoid, tapping over 10 years of experience and nearly 13,000 incidents serviced. For more information, visit  www.experian.com/24hourchecklist. Vision 2014: The First 24 Hours of a Breach from Experian Business Information Services

The Small Business Credit Share is a “give-to-get” data consortium in which members provide more detailed data about the performance of the accounts in their portfolios. In exchange for expanded contribution, members get exclusive access to enriched information that is deeper in content than what is available to standard Experian clients or through competitive credit share programs. They benefit from the more comprehensive reports, business credit scores, attributes, and reporting that are available. The Small Business Credit Share is open to all credit granting institutions, including financial institutions, companies that issue trade credit, telcos, utilities and others.  The tradeline performance reporting from this broad swath of B2B companies helps drive the effectiveness of the products that are available to members. The Small Business Credit Share has firm qualification standards to insure consistent information and regular reporting guidelines are followed, to help protect the interests of all members. In the past two-plus years, there has been good growth in the member base of the Small Business Credit Share. While attracting new members from a variety of industries, there also continues to be growing interest from financial institutions who presently report to other data consortia about becoming Small Business Credit Share members. Experian is working with them to highlight the advantages of reporting to multiple reporting agencies. In addition to increasing the likelihood that their interests will be protected if their customer’s obligations are more widely reported, they also give themselves more flexibility to manage the expense side of their operations. And when (not ‘if’) regulatory bodies shift their focus to the small business arena, some lenders are envisioning that broader reporting could become the rule. For example, the SBA is requiring that all SBA-backed loans be reported to commercial bureaus; whether that means to all commercial bureaus or to simply at least one is unclear. But the SBA’s rationale is clear: they want credit histories established for these companies so that SBA-backing should not be needed in the future. There are some exciting new products in development for Small Business Credit Share participants. The first of these is the upcoming release of an additional set of attributes which have been developed based on consumer experience and which will add considerable insight for credit risk managers. To assess their information value, these attributes were overlaid into a proof-of-concept score. The resultant model showed a 22% lift in KS and a 29% increase the percent of ‘bads’ pushed into the bottom 10% of the score range. There is also an ongoing development effort to replace the current Small Business Credit Share acquisition score. The new score will clearly benefit from the availability of the new attributes, but will also benefit from being developed on a population booked over a 2-year span from a much more recent time period (Nov 2010 to Oct 2012). The new score will be a blended model, with a ‘commercial-only’ option for clients that do not want to consider any consumer data within the score. The model will also use bureau-leveled consumer attributes, which will allow the model to work not only with Experian consumer data, but with consumer data from Equifax and Trans Union as well. Vision 2014: A Current Look at Commercial Credit Consortium Data from Experian Business Information Services

Did you know that this week is National Small Business Week? It is a time dedicated entirely to acknowledging the positive impact small businesses have on our economy. So let’s take a moment to recognize the contributions that millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners have made to our local communities. Whether it’s creating jobs or providing our favorite products and services at convenient locations, here’s to Small Business – they are truly the backbone of our nation’s economy. So during National Small Business Week, we at Experian will be participating in several activities that help small businesses understand their credit and make better decisions that will enable them to achieve and maintain success. Below are some of this week’s activities as well as some resources available to small business owners everyday: EVENTS: Wednesday, May 14 • 12 p.m. eastern – We will present a free webinar with the National Federation of Independent Business, and explore some of the misunderstandings of business credit, provide advice on how to build business credit and explain how a positive credit profile can help your business grow • 3 p.m. Eastern – We will continue the discussion on business credit, as we host a tweet chat (#CreditChat) with several small business experts. You’ll be able to ask questions and read best practices on how you can make business credit work for you. RESOURCES: • For access to tools and resources to help your business grow, visit www.experian.com/small-business • To better understand and learn the benefits managing your business credit, visit www.businesscreditfacts.com • For instant access to business credit report and scores, visit www.smartbusinessreports.com At Experian, we understand that en route to bringing communities our favorite barbers, ice cream stores, book shops, etc., small businesses owners experience challenges along the way. Whether it’s obtaining the necessary capital to make payroll or order more inventory, these challenges can seem a bit overwhelming and intimidating, especially when trying to manage the day to day operations of the business. This is why Experian helps entrepreneurs and small business owners by providing the right tools, resources and expert advice to help grow their businesses and keep our economy strong!

Experian’ s Vision Conference in Dallas wrapped up today with the last round up breakout sessions and a keynote address from Texas legend Roger Staubach, Heisman Trophy winner, Super Bowl MVP and Executive Chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle Americas. To all our Vision 2014 Conference attendees, thank you so much for coming this year and we look forward to seeing you all again next year.  

Vision 2014: The State of U.S. Business Credit from Experian Business Information Services Experian’s Business Information Services and Moody’s Analytics have been reporting on the health of small business credit on a quarterly basis since 2010, publishing the Small Business Credit Index report. In this joint session moderated by Brian Ward, Senior Director – Integrated Marketing,  Joel Pruis, Senior Business Consultant from Experian’s Global Consulting Practice and Moody’s Analytics Senior Director Cristian deRitis offered an in-depth analysis of business credit health across the United States. Cristian deRitis kicked the small business credit session into gear by taking the audience through an economic outlook, starting by reviewing of the economic progress started in part by austerity measures following the Great Recession. Joel Pruis continued the discussion with the “West vs. the Rest” small business credit conditions in the US adding national industry performance in various key metrics and resulting small business application volume trends. Experian’s Business Information Services unveiled a new interactive Business Information Map which provides key insights on business credit health by state and metropolitan statistical areas (MSA). The map enables users to get a visual representation of how states and MSA’s are performing in four key business credit health categories, including risk score, number of days businesses pay their bills past due, delinquency rates and bankruptcy rates.  The map includes the most recent quarter’s performance, year-over-year comparison and industry-level analysis. Tweet This! [VIEW NOW] New interactive map on business trends in the US #vision2014  http://bit.ly/visionibim         Click to Tweet Want to know the health of US businesses?  View the new Business Information Map #vision2014 http://bit.ly/visionibim             Click to Tweet Check out Experian's Business Information Map for great #smallbiz credit stats #vision2014  http://bit.ly/visionibim             Click to Tweet I Heart Maps – especially #business #information maps #vision2014 http://bit.ly/visionibim        Click to Tweet Business delinquency in the West shows signs of a comeback!  Compare YOY in our interactive map #vision2014 http://bit.ly/visionibim             Click to Tweet Analyze regional #smallbusiness #credit health with Experian's  #business information map #vision2014 http://bit.ly/visionibim          Click to Tweet Learn more about Experian’s Business Information Map by going to:  www.experian.com/ibim  

Day two of Experian’s 33rd annual Vision 2014 Conference in Dallas included a full morning of education on topics related to the economy and the industry. Chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, Dr. James Paulsen kicked off today’s events delivering a powerful keynote address on the economic and financial outlook for the U.S. Following Dr. Paulsen’s remarks, conference attendees headed into the day’s breakout sessions, including an update on the U.S. auto industry from Experian Automotive. According to Melinda Zabritski from Experian, in Q4 2014 U.S. auto loan balances grew to their highest level on record, $799 billion with new leases also expanding to a high of 28.84 percent. Another interesting topic covered today was a deep dive analysis on millennial borrowers, an important audience for lenders as they consider growth opportunity in the market. Experian’s analysis shows that this digitally-savvy population has different needs for loan products, communication and most importantly, credit education. We will be back with another update from Vision, and remember to follow our updates from the show on Twitter or read the announcements on our Vision page on LinkedIn. And check out some favorite tweets from today's conference.

Experian kicked off its 33rd annual Vision 2014 Conference today in Dallas with the keynote address that attendees have been anticipating for months – President Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States and founder of The Clinton Foundation. Although President Clinton addressed many topics in his talk including some of the important initiatives his foundation is spearheading, the theme centered around creative cooperation and the success that is achievable when people focus on their common goals. Experian hosted 32 breakout sessions throughout the day for attendees. Experian thought leaders, clients and industry experts discussed how to achieve quality growth in a challenging economic and competitive environment. View slides from today's presentations:  Know your enemy – a financial institutions best practices for preventing the latest fraud attacks Customer acquisitions in a changing digital landscape The new world of commercial lending – optimizing opportunities and winning new customers Trends in commercial card and small business lending The evolving landscape of customer management To trust or not to trust Regulatory requirements for model risk governance continue to evolve And check out some favorite tweets from today's conference.

Is your organization prepared to meet these requirements? Although some of the regulatory guidance on Model Risk Governance was released recently, it is nothing new and needs to bean integral and integrated part of an organization’s way of thinking, risk management and overall business strategy. Many organizations have recently invested in this area.  Given the significant time and resource required and the need to know and follow industry best practice, these same organizations have reached out and partnered with Experian as their trusted advisor.  Experian has helped all types and sizes of financial institutions to not just ensure regulatory and compliance demands are met but to meet their business needs and objectives, protect their safety and soundness and increase profitability and return.  Experian has played whatever role needed, whether it is analytics, modeling, consulting or simply staff augmentation, for many of the Top 5 U.S. Banks and international banks in addition to mid-size to small banks, financial institutions and credit unions. One important outcome of the financial crisis of the late 2000’s was increased regulatory oversight which includes an emphasis and need to track changes in the economic environment, as well as, ensure proper application of model development, implementation, use and governance in order to make sure there are no undue risks and ensure the safety and soundness of the institution.  This is clearly not a one-time exercise but a valuable on-going part of proper risk management that will lead to better decisions and enhanced business performance. Let Experian help show you the way! Vision 2014: Regulatory requirements for model risk governance from Experian Business Information Services Tweet This! Changes in economic environment or misapplication of models exposes an organization  Click to Tweet Regulators expect greater use of risk models as result oversight increased to review the mgmnt of these models http://ex.pn/RodDsG  Click to Tweet Model Risk Governance not new concept, but emerging best practice for model risk attribute stability mgmt http://ex.pn/RodDsG #vision201  Click to Tweet  

To trust or not to trust is the ultimate question when it comes to online, card not present transactions. For e-commerce merchants and online shoppers it should be a two-way street. But far too often, a customer who should be trusted has a transaction wrongfully declined. This tarnishes their relationship with the merchant, the bank and the credit-card company, resulting in loss of revenues, interchange fees and most importantly, lifetime loyalty. The impact of consumer action in the face of a decline can have real and measurable effects on all parties, including credit card companies, banks and merchants manifesting itself in lost revenues, lost fees and lost customer loyalty. In fact, in a recently commissioned independent survey by 41st Parameter, a part of Experian, 17% of consumers surveyed had an online transaction declined. That equals about $40 billion lost each year due to false positives… $40 billion that could be reclaimed. What’s even more distressing for consumers, however, is how they FEEL when their online transaction is declined. 83% of those surveyed felt upset, embarrassed or just plain angry. These powerful emotions are evident in WHO the consumer blames for the unwarranted decline – the simple fact is that consumers blame everyone; from the issuing bank to the credit network to the online merchant. Bottom line; everyone loses. Unnecessary operational costs. Decreased loyalty. Interchange loss. Lost revenues. These are just some of the negatives to unwarranted CNP transaction declines. This session will explore how to improve customer service and loyalty by leveraging information merchants and issues already have about consumers – including their buying patterns, methods and payment and devices they use. The combination of these and other factors creates a TrustScore which helps both the merchant AND the issuer determine if these are consumers that can be trusted – even if they only shop with a merchant on a casual basis.  Recognizing customers through trusted digital identities and approving more CNP transactions in real-time provides the opportunity for online retailers to collectively boost top-line revenues by as a much as $1 billion annually. Vision 2014: To Trust or Not To Trust from Experian Business Information Services Tweet this! $40B lost each year b/c unnecessary red flags raised & transactions blocked http://bit.ly/41stinfo #vision2014  Click to Tweet 38% of online shoppers blame their credit card company for CNP http://bit.ly/41stinfo #vision2014 Click to Tweet What’s the key to commerce in the digital world? Trust. How do we know that? Here’s the data to prove it. http://bit.ly/41stinfo #vision2014  Click to Tweet [INFOGRAPHIC] How to foster consumer trust in a digital world http://bit.ly/41stinfo #vision2014 Click to Tweet