All posts by Managing Editor, Experian Software Solutions

In a recent interview by Irene Ang from Identity Engineering at Microsoft, our own Marika Vilen, SVP of Platform Commercialization, discusses the importance of identity verification solutions and how to seamlessly integrate those across the digital user journey. We are very excited to be working with Microsoft. Identity verification allows organizations to confirm the person they are dealing with online is who they say they are. In light of the ongoing global pandemic, we see an uptick in digital activity and therefore an increased need for organizations to better verify who they are interacting with online, all while minimizing customer friction. Marika Vilen, SVP of Platform Commercialization, Experian Since COVID-19 started, there has been a 20% increase overall in consumer online transaction activities, our recent proprietary research shows. Consumers cite security as the most important factor in their online experience, particularly in regards to managing their financial data. So, what does this digital shift mean for businesses? Identity verification is an important step to take in digital interactions, and some level of friction can invoke a sense of security, but too much for too many customers can have a negative impact on the bottom line. So, while benefits are evident for identity verification, the process must also factor in the impact on the consumer. By taking a holistic approach that integrates across all stages in a customer relationship, customer friction can be minimized – and customer satisfaction and security maximized. We are proud to be working with Microsoft, integrating solutions that provide rich identity data assets and help inform real-time decision making. Related articles: Are traditional online identification methods becoming obsolete?  Q&A: Biometrics as the catalyst for trust in a socially distanced world  Getting to grips with the shifting fraud landscape 

We've compiled the top global July headlines you need to stay in-the-know on the latest hot topics and insights from our experts. 1. Accelerating forward: How Covid-19 has changed banking foreverChris Fletcher, SVP Decision Management & Cloud Services, covers how Covid-19 forced banks to deliver a convenient, engaging, relevant and secure digital experience, and how this fundamentally changes how banks operate and deliver value to customers. 2. Q&A: Importance of fraud trends as businesses open upDigital Journal recently spoke with EK Koh, SVP of Global Identity & Fraud Solutions, on what businesses need to do to be prepared for issues around cybersecurity and fraud as they open back up the economy. 3. Businesses need to modernize their approach for delivering digital experiencesBirger Thornburn, CTO of Decision Analytics, shares how the rapidly changing environment has greatly accelerated the shift from offline to digital interactions. 4. Experian’s 2 latest moves to combat fraudAuto Fin Journal addresses Experian ramping up efforts to curtail synthetic identity fraud, a significant challenge for lenders and finance companies, and strengthen solutions to help businesses more quickly respond to rising fraud threats due to the Covid-19 global health crisis. 5. AI at Experian with Shri SanthanamShri Santhanam, our Head of Global AI & Analytics at DA, participated in the Artificially Intelligent podcast discussing ways to approach AI in a holistic way, always with a view to realizing the desired business outcomes and strategic impact. In this dynamic environment, stay up-to-date with our latest Research:

Chris Ryan, Senior Fraud Business Consultant, talks to Nick Zulovich at the Auto Remarketing podcast about the new ways we are seeing fraud surface as the global pandemic evolves. "The pattern of activity that we're seeing that has really attracted my interest is this notion of human farming. A human farm is a pool of paid labor who research information on potential fraud victims using data that's been stolen through data breaches and using information that people publish through social media and other outlets. The objective of a human farmer is to be able to assemble a detailed profile of a potential fraud victim so that the perpetrator can better impersonate them and navigate around potential security measures and other obstacles that would normally be in the way." Chris Ryan, Senior Fraud Business Consultant Why the opportunity for human farming? People are out of work so there's a recruitment opportunity for those in need of an income. There is a flood of people into the online space who might not ordinarily engage digitally. This demographic may not be tech-savvy and maybe more susceptible to fraud methods such as phishing. Resources that typically screen for fraud are suffering due to office closures. The combination of high tech fraud to find potential victims plus skilled human intelligence makes these methods highly effective. New trend amidst new circumstances - the rise of synthetic ID Remote transactions combined with the high-value nature of the auto industry makes it a very attractive prospect to fraudsters. Even though purchases are down, the fraudsters are still active. Synthetic identity fraud, in particular, continues to be attractive because the identities are not real and therefore not suffering from the same downturn as genuine profiles. Listen to the full podcast here. Related articles: Getting to grips with the shifting fraud landscape Infographic: Top Global Fraud Trends 2020 Covid-19 as a Gateway to Fraud: Top 5 Global Fraud Trends to Watch Out for in 2020

Insights from Harry Singh, SVP, Global Decisioning, and Hristo Zahariev, Global Product Manager. Due to the global pandemic, one of the key challenges facing many consumers today is the ability to obtain support either from their credit provider or from government. This is manifesting itself in two ways – consumers facing very short-term financial difficulty, which might mean a payment holiday for a few months, or longer-term structural issues such as unemployment, which requires a very different set of treatments and outcomes. But what can businesses do to ensure consumer demand is met while taking care of customer experience? We look at the importance of digital channels within the decisioning environment, and how investment using AI can not only lead to consumer satisfaction now but also a sound business strategy for the future, regardless of how unpredictable that future may be.    How the industry can respond to consumers during this time of need A recent study from March this year looked at businesses that are not yet fully digital in terms of how they handle their consumer interactions, and how they can reach out to consumers to help them during the Covid-19 crisis. With call centers and operational centers closed, and anything between five and 50,000 applications a week coming into banks across the world since the pandemic began, businesses have inevitably been struggling with demand. Based on existing operational models examined within the study, if businesses were to manually manage these applications, they would need to double in size in terms of full-time employees, and follow-up interactions post approval may still not be met. Managing demand and staying compliant, while enabling consumers to successfully interreact without waiting hours to get through is the challenge faced by many businesses. It’s a balancing act that is both an opportunity and a risk and should be treated as such. Helping consumers in a way that is digital, while allowing for self-serve, is fundamental in meeting these new levels of demand - and doing so in a way that doesn’t feel demeaning to the consumer is where true differentiation begins. During a stressful time for consumers, it’s important that businesses step up to the challenge of demystifying their interactions, removing embarrassment around finances while also retaining an element of human engagement. Thanks to AI and a layered, cloud-first approach to decisioning, contacting pre-qualified consumers for both forbearance and hardship can now be done through a business’s banking application or their website, using artificially intelligent virtual assistants that can be deployed in a multitude of different digital channels. The consumer perspective: we need more than a chatbot Chatbots are very effective and useful in many ways, but when an interaction gets complex or there's something of a regulated or more subjective nature, it becomes difficult for that chatbot to provide the kind of service consumers are looking for. The answer lies in continuous learning, which moves away from the decision tree structure of a traditional chatbot and into the realms of natural language processing. The new age of virtual assistant remembers interactions and then learns from them, has short-term and long-term conversation goals, and recognizes small talk. The result feels a lot more empathetic and allows for always-on and real-time consumer interaction. How businesses can develop their strategies not only for today, but going forward Bringing together digital capabilities, analytical insights, and data to understand the affordability of a consumer is critical. Using demographic and geographic data, businesses need those insights, regardless of whether we are in a growth environment, a benign environment, or as we're seeing right now, a recession of macro-economic downturn. Businesses choosing to invest now to address their operational and strategic challenges are not just responding to Covid-19, they are looking beyond and into strategic requirements of the future. Financial difficulty may be more acute right now, but it has always existed and always will, for various reasons.  

In the second part of the Juniper Research and Experian podcast series on online payment fraud, we talk to Nick Maynard from Juniper Research, and David Britton, Vice President of Industry Solutions at Experian, about maturity in artificial intelligence and virtual assistants, and their current ability to respond to current business challenges. "What we're seeing in the consumer space is that AI is powering these virtual assistants and typically Alexa, Siri, Google, are the three big examples. What that's doing is creating an additional channel, it's a new way for users to interact... it mirrors the digital transition and the mobile transition over a number of years."Nick Maynard, Juniper Research "If you consider where artificial intelligence and machine learning are coming together, this is not going to be a big bang launch into market. We're seeing a slow, incremental roll-out." "In the physical world, when we talk about risk and recognition of a consumer, the human to human interaction takes in a tremendous number of variables to ensure that the person you're engaging with is who they claim to be.... in the digital space, that was eliminated overnight, and cosnumers were using a device as a proxy to represent them to another system or set of devices, like bank servers and eCommerce web servers." David Britton, VP of Industry Solutions We also discuss key points around evolving regulatory frameworks, and how they are driving change in identity-based solutions. Listen to the full podcast episode here, and don't forget to listen to What’s new in online payment fraud Part 1: Implications for consumers and businesses if you haven't already.

In this episode of the Insights in Action podcast we talk to Neil Stephenson, Vice President of Strategic Client Development, about how businesses can address a lack of data. Following an earlier episode tackling business data challenges, we discuss getting value from the data your organization already has access to, tackling legacy software issues, the accelerated shift to customer-centric technology stacks, and an increase in industry partnerships to solve common challenges. Nearly a third of senior business leaders say they don't have enough data to get insights they need, or that the quality of the data they have access to is poor. We take a look at the three steps businesses need to take to address this challenge, starting with the quality of data already in the business. "We see a number of organizations that have pretty powerful data within their own business but don't leverage it as well as they could, so matching data together and making sure they've got a really strong view of their customer across all of their systems is really essential, and then having processes ongoing to make sure that they maintain that view whenever they touch the customer, whether that be through an online channel or face to face." Neil Stephenson, VP, Strategic Client Development Listen to the full episode here, and look back at the previous in the series, Solving key business data challenges - with Bill O'Connell, Experian Global Decision Analytics

The first of a two-part series on our Insights in Action podcast, Nick Maynard, Juniper Research, and David Britton, our VP of Industry Solutions for Global Decision Analytics, discuss the latest developments around online payment fraud, and what the implications look like for consumers and businesses. Following the publication of the latest report on online payment fraud from Juniper Research, this episode takes a closer look at how the mobile revolution has created both opportunities and risks when it comes to online payment. "We're seeing a massive digitalization of existing payment methods and retail, which is being driven for a number of reasons. Convenience is a massive driver, and mobile wallets in particular offer a very convenient solution for payments, and they're being used very widely around the world. Other drivers include the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, which is having a role in driving the increased usage of the online channel."Nick Maynard, Juniper Research Topics covered in part 1 include: The online payment revolution has been led by mobile, with half of the world’s population estimated to use mobile wallets in the next four years. How this transformation is shaping the new online payment experience. ​ Covid-19 has pushed organizations to prioritize their digital transformation. We look at what the implications will be as a result of the rush to digital. With higher convenience, normally comes a higher risk of fraud – what we can expect to see as a part of this shift to mobile. ​ What businesses can do in the short term to mitigate those rising types of fraud, and what their key operational and strategic considerations should be for the future. ​ Listen to the full podcast here, and look out for what’s new in online payment fraud Part 2: How AI and evolving regulation are driving change

In a recent piece for the Forbes Technology Council, Businesses Need to Modernize Their Approach For Delivering Digital Experiences, I shared how the current rapidly changing environment has greatly accelerated the shift from offline to digital interactions. As businesses experience a need for heightened governance and controls, they must look towards technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, coupled with access to data in real-time, to move forward. According to the report Experian commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct, 53% of businesses struggle to make consistent customer decisions. Additionally, only 29% of businesses believe they do a good job of connecting analytics to action. When applying AI and machine learning to customer experiences, there are some concerns that businesses must keep in mind. The first is legal implications and privacy protections, which must always be a priority. The second is to combine analytics models with real-time decisions so that predictions can be harnessed and put into action in real-time. As more and more businesses shift to fully digital experiences, they must learn how to apply their vast amounts of data to models that can help inform the newly remote customer experience. If interested in the topic of businesses’ modernized approach to digital experiences, you can find the full article here.

In this episode of Insights in Action, David Britton, Vice President of Global Identity & Fraud Solutions, discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a massive shift to online for both consumers and businesses, and examines what implications have emerged across the online fraud landscape because of this. "As with any moment like Covid-19, fraudsters are very quick to pick up on possible areas of vulnerability that they can exploit in the market and in the ecosystem. And fraudsters always like to go where the weakest point is in the ecosystem or the weakest link in the chain. So fraudsters are absolutely taking advantage of this."David Britton Phishing is on the rise - fraudsters are impersonating key institutions and their communication channels to manipulate consumers Account takeover fraud - fraudsters are hiding in the traffic peak, posing as consumers using their credentials How businesses can counter the trend: Keeping online fraud at baySecuring our digital identitiesEnsuring a secure, transparent and meaningful treatment of data "The first thing to do is to ensure businesses are pulling together soft signals to define a better risk strategy and authentication strategy because then you can immediately identify if there's an anomolous actor that's trying to impersonate that 'known' good customer."David Britton Listen to this episode of the Insights in Action podcast

The opportunistic nature of hackers means that a global crisis can create the perfect breeding ground for fraudulent activity, meaning businesses and consumers need to be even more vigilant. View Infographic

There’s a digital payments revolution, and mobile is leading the charge. But at what cost does convenience come? Juniper Research’s latest online payment fraud report explores key issues around increased cybercrime and what that means for businesses looking to invest in fraud prevention. View infographic

Digital interactions between businesses and consumers are on the rise. The ability to authenticate and recognize customers provides a convenient and secure experience. However, the latest Global ID & Fraud Report shows a significant disparity in perception between businesses and consumers when it comes to recognition. View Infographic