Experian 2008 Annual Report Download - page 12

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10 Experian Annual Report 2008
North America
North America performed well despite challenging
market conditions caused by the major disruption
of the US mortgage market and subsequent global
credit liquidity issues. While revenue growth slowed,
there was excellent margin performance as all
businesses benefited from proactive cost control
measures taken over the past 18 months.
Credit Services
Includes consumer credit, business
information and automotive services
Revenue in Credit Services was
flat year-on-year, reflecting an
exceptionally challenging market
for US financial services clients. In
consumer information, disruption
of the mortgage market reduced
demand for credit reports used in
loan origination. Credit liquidity and
capital constraints caused major card
issuers to reduce spend in areas like
credit marketing (pre-screen) as the
year progressed. These factors were
largely balanced by strong demand for
countercyclical products in portfolio
management and collections, which
saw increased volumes and new
business wins. Business information
showed good growth, benefiting from
investment in a new database platform,
and reflected in new contract wins for
business credit reports and portfolio
scoring services. There was also
continued strong growth in automotive
information, driven by market share gains
in the sale of vehicle history reports.
There was good strategic progress
during the year, with a focus on new
product development, enhanced data
quality and increased sales force
productivity. The previously announced
partnership with Visa to create more
predictive bankruptcy scores is in
testing and validation with key card
issuers, while VantageScore continues
to gain traction. Such activities enable
Experian to realise opportunities even
during times of uncertainty, as now,
as well as positioning the business for
eventual market recovery.
Decision Analytics
Includes credit analytics, decision
support software and fraud solutions
Decision Analytics delivered revenue
growth of 7%, which represented a
good performance against a strong
prior year comparable (2007: 29%).
There was good growth in software
products used to support account
management as institutions seek new
ways to improve risk assessment,
as well as good progress in vertical
markets outside financial services,
particularly in the telecommunications
and energy sectors. Fraud prevention
activities also performed well, due to
greater traction from new products
and penetration of new channels. This
offset softness in software products
used in origination of new credit, as
financial services institutions deferred
some spending decisions.
• Revenue from continuing
activities up 4% at
constant exchange rates;
3% organic
• EBIT from continuing
activities up 8% excluding
FARES; up 6% including
FARES
• Proactive cost control
measures resulted
in strong margin
performance - EBIT
margin excluding FARES
up 110 basis points
• Resilient performance
from Credit Services
and Decision Analytics
against unprecedented
market conditions
• New media approaches
50% of Marketing Services
revenue
• Strong performances
at Consumer Direct and
PriceGrabber
2008 Revenue by activity1
Decision Analytics
Credit Services
Marketing Services
Interactive
1 Excludes discontinuing activities