Experian 2013 Annual Report Download - page 14
Download and view the complete annual report
Please find page 14 of the 2013 Experian annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.Business lines:
Credit Services
Description
Our credit bureaux hold and manage
databases that include information
supplied by lenders and certain public
records, such as liens, judgments and
bankruptcies, supplied by other
third parties.
Lenders and other subscribing
members to the bureaux provide us
with credit application and repayment
data on consumers and businesses.
We augment that data with publicly
available information. It is then
aggregated, cleansed and sorted to
form a credit report on a consumer or a
business which comprehensively shows
how current and past credit obligations
have been managed.
Credit reports vary by country,
but typically include identity data,
transactional data, past and present
credit obligations, court judgments,
bankruptcy information, suspected
fraudulent applications, collections data
and previous addresses, and in the case
of businesses, may include company
registration and ownership.
In a fully mature credit market, a credit
report includes information on credit
obligations, both positive and negative.
Positive information includes accounts
that have been paid on time, forming
a complete view of a consumer’s
or business’s financial behaviours.
Negative information includes past
due payments, collection accounts
and public records information such
as bankruptcies. In emerging credit
markets, consumer credit bureaux often
contain only negative data.
Contribution to
Group revenue
46%
Consumer credit reports help lenders
make better informed and faster credit
decisions through access to detailed
historical information about how
consumers have managed their credit
obligations. Business credit reports
are used by clients to set the credit
terms for new accounts and to manage
existing account relationships with
their customers and suppliers. With a
complete customer view, our clients
can manage their interactions with
their customers in a more effective
and positive manner, from a risk and
customer relationship perspective.
We continually freshen and augment
our bureaux databases, adding new
sources of data to further enhance the
depth and quality of the credit reports.
We benchmark our current data depth
around the globe against an ‘ultimate’
credit bureau profile. This allows us to
understand exactly what new data we
need to acquire and in what geographies.
Deeper data expands our market
coverage, provides our clients with
insights into complex decisions, enables
our data lab to research and build
innovative products that we can deploy
globally, opens up new vertical markets
and drives competitive differentiation
for us. Globally, we hold credit payment
data on close to 800 million consumers
and 99 million businesses. We operate 19
consumer credit bureaux and 13 business
credit bureaux around the world.
To check the credit history of a
consumer or business and store
information with a credit bureau, a
company must have a legitimate need
for accessing the data and usually must
notify the applicant of their intention
to contact a credit bureau. The laws
of each country vary in respect of the
hosting of such data and access to it.
We maintain a comprehensive security
programme to protect credit bureau
data through its entire lifecycle, from
collection, transformation and use, to
storage and then destruction.
We do not make lending decisions
or offer any comment or advice on
particular applications, but simply
provide factual information. Clients then
use that information, often in conjunction
with other information such as that
included in an application form or any
previous agreements with the applicant,
to help decide whether or not to lend.
Clients
Clients principally include organisations
that are extending or offering credit
in its many different forms. Our
diverse client base includes financial
institutions, retailers, manufacturers,
insurance companies, automotive
dealers, telecommunications and utility
companies. We also serve hospitals and
physician practices in the US, as well as
the public sector.
Financial characteristics
Credit reports are sold on a transactional
basis, priced per report delivered. Pricing
is typically tiered, varying according to the
volume of reports delivered to the client.
Typically, revenue for Credit Services
recurs habitually. Costs are incurred in
bringing data onto file (during aggregation,
cleansing and sorting) and from the
purchase of some third party data.
Credit Services manages extensive databases containing
the credit application and repayment histories of millions
of consumers and businesses around the world. This
information is used by our clients to manage the risks
associated with extending credit and to prevent fraud.
CREDIT SERVICES
DECISION ANALYTICS
MARKETING SERVICES
CONSUMER SERVICES
12 Experian Annual Report 2013 Business overview