Millions of people access the internet every day using desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices. Though an increased number of online users have been accessing the web while working from home due to the pandemic, many are still going online in public places and using public wi-fi and/or unsecured networks, such as coffee shops, airports, and internet cafes. While it may be convenient to access the internet from anywhere at any time, there are risks involved with doing so. Connecting to the internet on an unsecured network without the proper protection can render your device vulnerable to data collection, tracking, and targeting from hackers. The best way to protect yourself from these kinds of attacks is to use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. What is a Virtual Private Network? A Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates an encrypted, private connection to the internet that allows you to securely browse the web while protecting your information from being tracked or targeted. Globally, there are approximately 1.5 billion VPN users as of 2023, making up about a third of all internet users worldwide. 43% of these people use a VPN for security reasons.[1] How does a VPN work? A VPN routes your internet traffic through a different server, rather than the server your internet service provider usually uses. The data you send and receive is then encrypted, so even if it were to fall into the wrong hands, it would be unreadable. Your data will appear to be sent from the VPN itself, instead of from your device. This provides an additional layer of privacy to your browsing experience, especially if you’re using a public or unsecured network to access the internet. How can you use a VPN? With Experian’s Secure VPN, what you search, see, and share on your mobile or desktop devices stays hidden from hackers, preventing data collection, tracking, and targeting. You can confidently connect to a stronger, more reliable, private Wi-Fi connection that secures your devices’ online or offline activity. What are the benefits of Experian’s Secure VPN? You can use Experian’s Secure VPN on an unlimited number of desktop and mobile devices, so your whole family can be protected. Secure VPN’s high-speed connection ensures that you won’t need to worry about slow loading times or dropped connections, and its unrivaled security allows you to take advantage of best-in-class privacy. Browsing the internet on an unsecured network is risky and can leave you open to data theft and identity fraud. By using a VPN, you’ll enjoy a safer, more secure internet experience. Visit our website to learn more about Experian’s Digital Privacy and Control solutions. [1]DataProt.net. VPN Statistics for 2023 – Keeping Your Browsing Habits Private.

Banking uncertainty creates opportunity for fraud The recent regional bank collapses left anxious consumers scrambling to withdraw their funds or open new accounts at other institutions. Unfortunately, this situation has also created an opportunity for fraudsters to take advantage of the chaos. Criminals are exploiting the situation and posing as legitimate customers looking to flee their current bank to open new accounts elsewhere. Financial institutions looking to bring on these consumers as new clients must remain vigilant against fraudulent activity. Fraudsters also prey on vulnerable individuals who may be financially stressed and uncertain about the future. This creates a breeding ground for scams as fear and uncertainty cloud judgment and make people more susceptible to manipulation. Beware of fraudulent tactics Now, it is more important than ever for financial institutions to be vigilant in their due diligence processes. As they navigate this period of financial turbulence, they must take extra precautions to ensure that new customers are who they say they are by verifying customer identities, conducting thorough background checks where necessary, and monitoring transactions for any signs of suspicious activity. Consumers should also maintain vigilance — fraudulent schemes come in many forms, from phishing scams to fake investment opportunities promising unrealistic returns. To protect yourself against these risks, it is important to remain vigilant and take precautions such as verifying the legitimacy of any offers or investments before investing, monitoring your bank and credit card statements regularly for suspicious activity, and being skeptical of unsolicited phone calls, emails, or text messages. Security researcher Johannes Ulrich reported that threat actors are jumping at the opportunity, registering suspicious domains related to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) that are likely to be used in attacks. Ulrich warned that the scammers might try to contact former clients of SVB to offer them a support package, legal services, loans, or other fake services relating to the bank's collapse. Meanwhile, on the day of the SVB closure, synthetic identity fraud began to climb from an attack rate of .57 to a first peak of 1.24% on the Sunday following the closure, or an increase of 80%. After the first spike reduced on March 14, we only saw a return of an even higher spike on March 21 to 1.35%, with bumps continuing since then. As the economy slows and fraud rises, don’t let your guard down The recent surge in third-party attack rates on small business and investment platforms is a cause for concern. There was a staggering nearly 500% increase in these attacks between March 7th and 11th, which coincided with the release of negative news about SVB. Bad actors had evidently been preparing for this moment and were quick to exploit vulnerabilities they had identified across our financial system. They used sophisticated bots to create multiple accounts within minutes of the news dropping and stole identities to perpetrate fraudulent activities. This underscores the need for increased vigilance and proactive measures to protect against cyber threats impacting financial institutions. Adopting stronger security measures like multi-factor authentication, real-time monitoring, and collaboration with law enforcement agencies for timely identification of attackers is of paramount importance to prevent similar fraud events in the future. From frictionless to friction-right As businesses seek to stabilize their operations in the face of market turbulence, they must also remain vigilant against the threat of fraud. Illicit activities can permeate a company's ecosystem and disrupt its operations, potentially leading to financial losses and reputational damage. Safeguarding against fraud is not a simple task. Striking a balance between ensuring a smooth customer experience and implementing effective fraud prevention measures can be a challenging endeavor. For financial institutions in particular, being too stringent in fraud prevention efforts may drive customers away, while being too lenient can expose them to additional fraud risks. This is where a waterfall approach, such as that offered by Experian CrossCore®, can prove invaluable. By leveraging an array of fraud detection tools and technologies, businesses can tailor their fraud prevention strategies to suit the specific needs and journeys of different customer segments. This layered, customized approach can help protect businesses from fraud while ensuring a seamless customer experience. Learn more

With an ever-present need for efficiency, security, and seamless citizen services, many agencies are looking at the benefits of a data-driven government. Last year, the federal government kicked off a unified effort to enable data-driven decision making. The goal at that level – and across all agencies – is to serve citizens more efficiently and effectively. By embracing the power of data and analytics, agencies of all sizes can set themselves up to better serve their citizens. What is a data-driven government? Agencies collect citizen data from a variety of service-based sources, including the Postal Service, Census Bureau, social welfare departments, and agencies that issue government IDs. When properly leveraged, this data holds many possibilities. However, many agencies face challenges when it comes to efficient collection, sharing, usage, integrity, and accessibility. Due to the amount of data collected and the potential lack of consistency in the collection and storage techniques, the data may not be usable. Without proper management and analysis, there’s little government agencies can do with their data to improve their processes. A data-driven government has well-managed data and uses that data to drive their decisions as they relate to citizen requests for benefits, tax collection, elections, and more. What are the benefits of data-driven decision making? Data management and government data analytics enable agencies to react quickly to citizen demands and concerns and proactively anticipate an issue before it becomes a crisis. With the right tools, agencies can gain a holistic view of their citizens, communicate effectively internally, provide digitally-driven services and improve overall efficiency through government-wide data integration and management. These changes have a wide range of benefits, including reduction of cost, fraud, waste and abuse, the automation of manual processes, and better service delivery. Why is a data-driven strategy required? In addition to the benefits listed above, a data-driven strategy also helps agencies align with published NIST guidelines and the need to monitor, evaluate, and maintain digital identity systems. Proper use of data-driven digital identity strategies will enhance equity and the usability of the solutions agencies provide to their citizens. Building an effective data-driven strategy The right strategy starts with ensuring that all departments about the need for proper data management and analytics and the guidelines that will govern it, such as maintaining up-to-date data, removing silos, and leveraging the right tools. The next step is finding the right partner. An effective partner can help agencies develop and maintain data management systems and implement the right tools and analytics – things like machine learning in government – to help each agency function efficiently and safeguard the data of its citizens. To learn how Experian can help your agency improve its use of data, visit us or request a call. Visit us

High property values and rising interest rates have priced many borrowers out of the market. In the face of declining home purchases, lenders are focusing on their portfolios and opportunities to expand borrower relationships. At the same time, portfolio health is increasingly important. Keeping a pulse on and successfully managing portfolio risk is just as important as portfolio growth. To effectively manage a mortgage portfolio, an understanding of the complete financial standing of a borrower, along with the most recent loan performance and property data characteristics, is crucial. Below we discuss three ways to analyze your portfolio to maximize performance. Portfolio risk While mortgage delinquencies remain well below pre-pandemic levels, rolling delinquency rates are seeing an uptick. In a recent study, we found that, of the at-risk population, over 24% may be at high risk of delinquency or default. Having the tools and resources to segment your portfolio and identify these borrowers is key to preemptively assisting or modifying loan terms and reducing risk exposure to the business. Growth and retention Did you know up to 64% of prime and above borrows may be ideal Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) candidates? Having the ability to segment your portfolio to identify borrowers who can tap into their home equity as a line of credit for upgrades, remodeling, or simply a rainy-day fund, will allow you to grow your originations pipeline while also supporting your mortgage retention strategy. To optimize your segmentation strategy, consider leveraging In the Market Models (ITMM) to identify borrowers with a high propensity to respond to HELOC offers. Through a retrospective analysis, we found that ITMM can improve campaign performance by over 700%. Similarly, a HELOC can be a prime option for borrowers with increasing debt. Through our newly launched solution, Mortgage Insights Dashboard for Servicing, we found that up to 46% of prime and above borrowers may be ideal candidates for debt consolidation. For this segment of your portfolio, a HELOC can consolidate high-interest debt from credit cards, retail cards, or even short-term loans. Peer analysis Like sports teams, many mortgage lenders and servicers are interested in comparing their performance against that of their peers. Are your portfolio runoff rates above, equal to, or below that of your competitors? In some instances, we’ve seen a lender’s runoff rate averaging 10% MoM higher than their peers. By comparing your portfolio performance against your peers (and the market) you can assess both the efficacy of portfolio recapture strategies and demonstrate loan quality to investors. While these are just a few examples of ways to analyze your portfolio, perhaps what’s most important is having the data, such as credit, income, DTI, and property information, needed for this type of intelligence available in one place. Partner with a provider that can offer you the mortgage servicing solutions to easily segment your portfolio to gain insights and inform ongoing strategic decisions. Learn more *Data charts source: Experian's Mortgage Insights Dashboard for Servicing

According to Experian’s State of the Automotive Finance Market Report: Q1 2023, the average interest rate for a new vehicle increased to 6.58%

The unsecured personal loan, one of the most popular products in the financial space, has seen ebbs and flows over the last several years due to many factors, including economic volatility, the global pandemic, changing consumer behaviors and expectations, and more. Experian data scientists and analysts took a deep dive into data between 2018 and 2022 to uncover and analyze trends in this important industry segment. Additionally, they recommend fintech lending solutions to help fintechs stay ahead of ever-changing market conditions and discover new opportunities. This analysis shows that digital loans accounted for 45 percent of the market in 2022. While this is down from 52% in 2021, digital loan market share continues to grow. The analysis also provides a detailed look into who the digital borrower is and how they compare to traditional borrowers. As we look to the rest of 2023 and beyond, fintechs must be armed with the best digital lending technology, tools, and data to fuel profitable growth while mitigating as much risk as possible. Download our fintech trends report for a full analysis on origination volume trends, delinquency trends, and consumer behavior insights. Download now

Every data-driven organization needs to turn raw data into insights and, potentially, foresight. There was a time when lack of data was a hindrance, but that's often no longer the case. Many organizations are overwhelmed with too much data and lack clarity on how to best organize or use it. Modern business intelligence platforms can help. And financial institutions can use business intelligence analytics to optimize their decisioning and uncover safe growth opportunities. What is business intelligence? Business intelligence is an overarching term for the platforms and processes that organizations use to collect, store, analyze and display data and information. The ability to go from raw data to useful insights and foresight presents organizations with a powerful advantage, and can help them greatly improve their operations and efficiencies. Let’s pause and break down the below terms before expanding on business intelligence. Data: The raw information, such as customers' credit scores. Many organizations collect so much data that keeping it all can be an expensive challenge. Access to new types of data, such as alternative credit data, can assist with decisioning — but additional data points are only helpful if you have the resources or expertise to process and analyze them.Information: Once you process and organize data points, you can display the resulting information in reports, dashboards, and other visualizations that are easier to understand. Therefore, turning raw data into information. For example, the information you acquire might dictate that customers with credit scores over 720 prefer one of your products twice as much as your other products.Insight: The information tells you what happened, but you must analyze it to find useful and actionable insights. There could be several reasons customers within a specific score band prefer one product over another, and insights offer context and help you decide what to do next. In addition, you could also see what happened to the customers who were not approved.Foresight: You can also use information and insights to make predictions about what can happen or how to act in the future given different scenarios. For example, how your customers' preferences will likely change if you offer new terms, introduce a new product or there's a large economic shift. Business intelligence isn't new — but it is changing. Traditionally, business intelligence heavily relied on IT teams to sift through the data and generate reports, dashboards and other visualizations. Business leaders could ask questions and wait for the IT team to answer the queries and present the results. Modern business intelligence platforms make that process much easier and offer analytical insights. Now even non-technical business leaders can quickly answer questions with cloud-based and self-service tools. Business intelligence vs. business intelligence analytics Business intelligence can refer to the overall systems in place that collect, store, organize and visualize your data. Business intelligence tends to focus on turning data into presentable information and descriptive analytics — telling you what happened and how it happened. Business intelligence analytics is a subset of business intelligence that focuses on diagnostics, predictive and prescriptive analytics. In other words, why something happened, what could happen in the future, and what you should do. Essentially, the insights and foresight that are listed above. How can modern business intelligence benefit lenders? A business intelligence strategy and advanced analytics and modeling can help lenders precisely target customers, improve product offerings, streamline originations, manage portfolios and increase recovery rates. More specifically, business intelligence can help lenders uncover various trends and insights, such as: Changes in consumers' financial health and credit behavior.How customers' credit scores migrate over time.The risk performance of various portfolios.How product offerings and terms compare to competitors.Which loans are they losing to peers?Which credit attributes are most predictive for their target market? Understanding what's working well today is imperative. But your competitors aren't standing still. You also need to monitor trends and forecast the impact — good or bad — of various changes. WATCH: Webinar: Using Business Intelligence to Unlock Better Lending Decisions Using business intelligence to safely grow your portfolio Let's take a deeper dive into how business intelligence could help you grow your portfolio without taking on additional risk. It's an appealing goal that could be addressed in different ways depending on the underlying issue and business objective. For example, you might be losing loans to peers because of an acquisition strategy that's resulting in declining good customers. Or, perhaps your competitors' products are more appealing to your target customers. Business intelligence can show you how many applications you received, approved, and booked — and how many approved or declined applicants accepted a competitor's offer. You can segment and analyze the results based on the applicant’s credit scores, income, debt-to-income, loan amounts, loan terms, loan performance and other metrics. An in-depth analysis might highlight meaningful insights. For example, you might find that you disproportionately lost longer-term loans to competitors. Perhaps matching your competitors' long-term loan offerings could help you book more loans. READ: White paper: Getting AI-driven decisioning right in financial services Experian's business intelligence analytics solutions Lenders can use modern business intelligence platforms to better understand their customers, products, competitors, trends, and the potential impact of shifting economic circumstances or consumer behavior. Experian's Ascend Intelligence Services™ suite of solutions can help you turn data points into actionable insights. Ascend Intelligence Services™ Acquire Model: Create custom machine learning models that can incorporate internal, bureau and alternative credit data to more accurately assess risk and increase your lending universe.Ascend Intelligence Services™ Acquire Strategy: Get a more granular view of applicants that can help you improve segmentation and increase automation.Ascend Intelligence Services™ Pulse: A model and strategy health dashboard that can help you proactively identify and remediate issues and nimbly react to market changes.Ascend Intelligence Services™ Limit: Set and manage credit limits during account opening and when managing accounts to increase revenue and mitigate risk.Ascend Intelligence Services™ Foresight: A modern business intelligence platform that offers easy-to-use tools that help business leaders make better-informed decisions. Businesses can also leverage Experian's industry-leading data assets and expertise with various types of project-based and ongoing engagements. Learn more about how you can implement or benefit from business intelligence analytics.

The fraud problem is ever-present, with 94% of businesses reporting it as a top priority, and fraudsters constantly finding new targets for theft. Preventing fraud requires a carefully orchestrated strategy that can recognize and treat a variety of types — without adding so much friction that it drives customers away. Experian’s fraud prevention and detection platform, CrossCore®, was recently named an Overall Leader, Product Leader in Fraud Reduction Intelligence Platforms, Innovation Leader and Market Leader in Fraud Reduction by KuppingerCole. CrossCore is an integrated digital identity and fraud risk platform that enables organizations to connect, access, and orchestrate decisions that leverage multiple data sources and services. CrossCore combines risk-based authentication, identity proofing, and fraud detection into a single, state-of-the-art cloud platform. It engages flexible decisioning workflows and advanced analytics to make real-time risk decisions throughout the customer lifecycle. This recognition highlights Experian’s comprehensive approach to combating fraud and validates that CrossCore offers best-in-class capabilities by augmenting Experian’s industry-leading identity and fraud offerings with a highly curated ecosystem of partners which enables further optionality for organizations based on their specific needs. To learn more about how CrossCore can benefit your organization, read the report or visit us. Learn more

On average, the typical global consumer owns three or more connected devices.1 80% of consumers bounce between devices, while 31% who turned to digital channels for their last purchase used multiple devices along the way.2 Considering these trends, many lenders are leveraging multiple channels in addition to direct mail, including email and mobile applications, to maximize their credit marketing efforts. The challenge, however, is effectively engaging consumers without becoming overbearing or inconsistent. In this article, we explore what identity resolution for credit marketing is and how the right identity tools can enable financial institutions to create more cohesive and personalized customer interactions. What is identity resolution? Identity resolution connects unique identifiers across touchpoints to build a unified identity for an individual, household, or business. This requires an identity graph, a proprietary database that collects, stitches, and stores identifiers from digital and offline sources. As a result, organizations can create a persistent, high-definition customer view, allowing for more consistent and meaningful brand experiences. What are the types of identity resolution? There are two common approaches to identity resolution: probabilistic ID matching and deterministic ID matching. Probabilistic ID matching uses multiple algorithms and data sets to match identity profiles that are most likely the same customer. Data points used in probabilistic models include IP addresses and device types. Deterministic ID matching uses first-party data that customers have produced, enabling you to merge new data with customer records and identify matches among existing identifiers. Examples of this type of data include phone numbers and email addresses. What role does identity resolution play in credit marketing? Maintaining a comprehensive customer view is crucial to credit marketing — the insights gained allow lenders to determine who they should engage and the type of offer or messaging that would resonate most. But there are many factors that can prevent financial institutions from doing this effectively: poor data quality, consumers bouncing between multiple devices, and so on. Seven out of 10 consumers find it important that companies they interact with online identify them across visits. Identity resolution for credit marketing solves these issues by matching and linking customer data from disparate sources back to a single profile. This enables lenders to: Create highly targeted campaigns. If your data is incomplete or inaccurate, you may waste your marketing spend by engaging the wrong audience or sending out irrelevant credit offers. An identity resolution solution that leverages expansive, regularly updated data gives you access to high-definition views of individuals, resulting in more personalization and greater campaign engagement. Deliver seamless, omnichannel experiences. To further improve your credit marketing efforts, you’ll need to keep up with consumers not only as their needs or preferences change, but also as they move across channels and devices. Instead of creating multiple identity profiles for the same person, identity resolution can recognize an individual across touchpoints, allowing you to create consistent offers and cohesive experiences. Picking the right marketing identity resolution solution While the type of identity resolution for marketing solution can vary depending on your business’s goals and challenges, Experian can help you get started. To learn more, visit us today. 1 Global number of devices and connections per capita 2018-2023, Statista. 2 Cross Device Marketing - Statistics and Trends, Go-Globe.

Innovation and inspiration took center stage at Day 2 of Vision. Jennifer Schulz, CEO of Experian, North America opened the day with a look ahead at some of the solutions that are powering opportunities today and tomorrow. Sitting down with Robert Boxberger, President, Decision Analytics, and Scott Brown, President, Consumer Information Services, the group discussed key priorities for business innovation and the need to challenge the status quo. AI came up for discussion – as was no surprise – and while AI isn’t new, the newest versions are transformative. Whether it’s building a model a mile up (mid-flight), or continuously asking if solutions are “first, best or only,” innovation is part of Experian’s DNA as evidenced by two demos that took place on the main stage. Demo: Fraud Sandbox Fraud moves fast. A demo of the Fraud Sandbox showed the audience the importance of looking at consumer insights to pull back fraud signals. By leveraging the right fraud platform, you can turn insight into action. Working only with internal data is limiting, making it hard to detect fraud clusters and organizations open themselves up to millions of dollars in fraud; with external data it's easier to spot multiple uses of same information in multiple applications. Demo: Ascend Ops Ascend Ops connects data across different parts of the business and automates the process of model deployment so you can spend less time deploying and more time testing in market. Keynote: Alexis Ohanian Alexis Ohanian credits his success to a series of very fortunate events. The son and grandson of immigrants, Ohanian saw hustle, self-reliance and grit in his parents that he hopes his own children have. The innovator talked about how important timing is for entrepreneurs, discussing early ideas, starting Reddit and what he looks for in backing startups via his venture capitalist firm Seven Seven Six – named after 776 BCE, the year of the first Olympics. Ohanian also talked about the need to lean into AI – that it can make lean teams more efficient when you can automate to accomplish more, faster. It also enables humans to do work that is creative, strategic and empathetic, with a better quality of life. And to round it out, the self-proclaimed “business dad” talked about how having a bigger why – in the form of children – makes him better at his job. Keynote: Michael Strahan Michael Strahan shared a number of gridiron glory stories, the mental muscle it takes to get into the zone on game day, and the rolodex of injuries he had over the years – and how it taught him to look at people as individuals; an education in sociology. From his father he learned to talk about “when” rather than “if” and he’s developed a “keep going” mentality when it comes to everything he does. From clothing lines and skincare to management and production, Strahan says he’s committed to continuing to say yes and not be afraid of trying anything. Session highlights – day 2 Identity and fraud trends Current considerations that are top of mind for organizations include the speed of change, regulatory landscape, technology and the number of people online. Fraudsters are evolving faster than ever and are returning to the basics – think DDA fraud, check fraud and check washing. It is imperative to balance security with convenience and seamlessness as consumer expectations aren’t waning; therefore, it’s the business’ responsibility to meet and exceed customer expectations and to ultimately protect customers. Consumer credit trends and innovation Retailers and tech titans are pushing further into financial services. What separates them from the industry? People rave about brands more so than they do banks. The session delineated that digital transformation is not the digitization of what institutions were already doing. It requires a new way of thinking. Consumer privacy In 2023, 26 states have introduced comprehensive privacy legislation. It’s top of mind for consumers and top of mind for the government. Experian approaches privacy with strategies focused on security, accuracy, fairness, transparency and inclusion. Operational efficiency A panel of financial institutions experts discussed how they use analytics for operational efficiency. They talked about how they prioritize, the importance of the regulatory wrapper, and what differentiated their methods to reach success and make an impact. Fraud Organizations must consider the risks and rewards of their actions. It is critical to use analytics to stay agile and leverage owned and external data to make smart, fast and safe decisions. The action items for today’s organizations? Model, test, scale, repeat – scale your model based on your growth goals and expectations, and truly know your customer at every point of the interaction.   That’s a wrap on Vision 2023. We can’t wait to build on this momentum and see the conversations we have in store next year!

Breaking down, rethinking, and optimizing your debt collection recovery process can be complicated — but you risk falling behind if you don't invest in your business. From managing live agents to unlocking the latest machine-learning models, there are different options and routes you can take to improve recovery rates.  Debt collection challenges in 2023 Collection agencies have embraced digitization. The benefits are numerous — cost savings, streamlined processes, and improved compliance, to name a few. However, digital tools aren't cure-alls, and they can even create new challenges if you're not careful. Maintaining accurate consumer data: Quickly reaching consumers can be difficult during times of economic uncertainty. Increased access to data can help you overcome this challenge, but only if you can manage and understand the information. If you simply turn on the metaphorical data streams, you could find yourself drowning in duplicate and erroneous entries.Keeping up with rising delinquencies: Delinquency rates steadily rose throughout 2022.1 Although rates may level out for some types of accounts in 2023, collection agencies need a plan for dealing with the potential increased volume. At the same time, continued low unemployment rates could make it difficult to hire and retain agents. Managing a tight budget: Recession worries also have companies rethinking expenses, which can impact your ability to increase head count and invest in technology. Finding effective trade-offs is going to be important for debt collection process optimization.Staying compliant: We've seen some major changes over the last few years, but there's no time to rest — debt collectors always need to be aware of new state and federal regulations. Digitization might make compliance more difficult if you're now managing an increasing amount of personal information or using text messages (or other omni-channels) to contact consumers. WATCH:Keeping pace with collections compliance changes Five ways to enhance your debt collection process Here are five ways that debt collectors can overcome today's challenges and take advantage of new opportunities.  1. Leverage clean data Continuously updating and checking the accuracy of your data can help increase right-party contact rates. But don't rely on your internal data and basic internet searches or public records. Leading data and skip-tracing services can give you access to additional data from credit bureaus, alternative financial services, collateral records, business listings and other helpful sources. Some skip-tracing tools can continuously verify and update contact information. They can also rank contact records, such as phone numbers, to save your agent's time. And identify consumers in a protected status such as bankrupt, deceased, and active military) and require special handling to help you stay compliant. 2. Implement advanced analytics and automation High-quality data can also be the foundation for a data-driven approach to collections.  Use collections-specific models: Although credit risk scores can be a piece of the debt collection puzzle, debt collection recovery models are often a better fit. You may be able to use different models to score accounts based on exposure, risk, willingness to pay or behavioral factors. Segment accounts: Increased insights and models also allow you to more precisely segment accounts, which can help you handle larger volumes with fewer resources. For instance, you can more accurately determine which accounts require an agent's personal touch, which can move forward with an automated experience and which should go to the back of your queue.  The data-driven approach also allows you to increasingly automate your collections — which can help you deal with rising delinquency rates in the face of a tight labor market and budget constraints. 3. Know when and how to make contact Segmentation and advanced analytics can tell you who and when to contact, but you also have to be mindful of how you reach out. Letters, calls, emails and texts can all be effective in the right circumstances, but no single option will always be best. For example, a text could be ideal when contacting Gen Z, but a call might work best for Baby Boomers. That's neither novel nor surprising, but it is important to stay up to date with the latest trends and preferences. Ideally, you reach people on their preferred channel at an appropriate time. You may also need to continually test, monitor and refine your process, especially if you want to increase automation.  READ:Digital Debt Collection Future white paper 4. Offer financially appropriate treatments In addition to picking the right communication channel, consider the payment options you offer consumers. Various payment plans, settlements and policies can directly affect your recovery rates — and what performed best in previous years might not make sense anymore. Chatbots and virtual negotiators can also help improve recovery rates without straining your agents' time. And for accounts that will likely self-cure, automated texts or emails with links to self-service portals could be an ideal solution. Expanding payment methods, such as accepting payments from digital wallets when you're sending a text message, could also make sense. However, you want to be sure you're not wasting time or money by contacting consumers who don't have the means to make a payment. Instead, set those accounts aside for now, but monitor them for changes that could indicate their financial situation has changed — such as a new credit line. Then, try to offer a solution that will likely fit the consumer's circumstances. 5. Invest in your live agents Modern debt management and collection systems focus on digitization and automation, and these can improve recovery rates. But don't forget about your front-line agents. There will always be times when a personal touch gets you further than an automated message. Continued training and ongoing recognition can be important for retaining top performers, maintaining compliance and increasing agents' effectiveness.  Partner for success Implementing an efficient and effective collections strategy can require a lot of work, but you don't have to go at it alone. Experian offers various debt collection solutions that can help optimize processes and free up your organization's resources and agents' time. Tap into our industry-leading data sources — including traditional credit data, alternative financial data and over 5,000 local phone exchange carriers — to find, update and verify account information. Available on the cloud or with secure file transfers, the TrueTrace™ and TrueTrace Live™ tools have led to a 10 percent lift in right-party contact rates compared to competitors. When it comes to optimizing outreach, you can prioritize accounts with over 60 industry-specific debt recovery scores via PriorityScore for CollectionsSM. Or work with Experian to create custom models for your organization. For an end-to-end decisioning solution, our AI-driven PowerCurve® Collections solution draws from internal and external data to determine the proper customer contact frequency, channel and treatment options, including self-service portals. Create your own strategies and workflows and manage the entire process with a single dashboard, cloud-based access and integrated reports. Learn more about Experian's debt collection process solutions 1Experian. (February 2023). Credit Scores Steady as Consumer Debt Balances Rise in 2022

Jennifer Schulz, CEO of Experian, North America kicked off Experian’s annual Vision conference Tuesday morning pointing to data, analytics, technology and collective curiosity as the drivers for change and a more impactful tomorrow to more than 700 attendees. Keynote speaker: Jennifer Bailey Jennifer Bailey, Vice President of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, spoke about the customer experience “ethos.” She explained how Apple takes a long-term view and values the single most important performance metric as customer experience. She said creating a seamless customer experience comes down to making things simple and understandable, and asking, “Are we solving a customer problem?” and “How are we making it easier for customers to enjoy and liver their lives. Bailey, who said of all apps she uses the weather app the most, also talked about innovation, and that both intent and making mistakes are important parts of the process. Apple’s products are known for their user-friendliness, and design is part of that. She encouraged the audience to give design teams room to create without bottom line pressures and not to be afraid to take well-considered risks. Keynote Speaker: Gary Cohn Gary Cohn, Vice Chairman of IBM, talked about the current economic climate, and while it’s a natural viewpoint to look to the past for guidance, the current environment is unlike any before. Cohn discussed regulatory compliance in the banking industry and prioritizing safety and soundness. While AI is topical and in numerous headlines recently, Cohn reminded the conference goers that AI isn’t new. He said what is new and important is that you can now teach models to find the information needed rather than having to feed all the information yourself. He believes AI is not the end of employment, but rather helps boost productivity, efficiency, and job satisfaction and provides organizations more data. As for advice for the audience, Cohn shared opportunities are in the uncomfortable zones and you have to be willing to fail in order to succeed. Session highlights – Day 1 The conference hall was buzzing with conversations, discussions and thought leadership. Overall themes that were frequently part of the conversation included seamless customer experiences, agility in face of economic changes and leveraging AI/ML into strategies. Fraud automation and preventing commercial fraud More businesses are opening than ever before and lenders and service providers need a way to determine risk from businesses who are less than a year old. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to fraud. A layered solution assesses risk and applies the correct friction to resolve the risk and pass or refer the applicant. Identity Today’s consumer wants a personalized experience and is privacy conscious. Additionally, regulators are also pushing for greater privacy. Clean rooms allow you and a partner to add data to a safe space and learn more about consumers without exposing data. The right data improves acquisition rates, identity verification and allows you to anticipate customer needs. Advanced scoring Data, models and strategy are the levers institutions are using to leverage responsible analytics to meet their objectives like safely growing existing portfolios, managing the “right” level of risk, and providing a seamless digital experience. However, the total value of a decisioning system is almost always constrained by its most rudimentary component. The panel of experts discussed their uses and goals for leveraging models and customer experience was at the top of their priorities. Recession preparedness Delinquency is on the rise and lending offers made continue to drop. Changes in the economic climate require frequent monitoring of portfolio and decisions, benchmarking against peers, updating credit models and decision strategies, and stress testing portfolio and models. Trends in credit risk management While AI at the hands of everyone is topical today, it ranked lowest on the list of trends attendees believed were impacting their business. At the top of the list? The growing demand for simpler, faster and seamless experiences. More insights from Vision to come. Follow @ExperianVision and @ExperianInsights to see more of the action.

To reach customers in our modern, diverse communications landscape, it's not enough to send out one-size-fits-all marketing messages. Today's consumers value and continue to do business with organizations that put them first. For financial institutions, this means providing personalized experiences that enable your customers to feel seen and your marketing dollars to go further. How can you achieve this? The answer is simple: a customer-driven credit marketing strategy. What is customer-driven marketing? Customer-driven marketing is a strategy that focuses on putting consumers first, rather than products. It means thinking about the needs, wants and motivations of the prospects you're trying to reach and centering your marketing campaigns and messages around that audience. When done well, this comprehensive approach extends beyond the marketing team to all members of a company. The benefits of customer-driven credit marketing One benefit of this type of personalized credit marketing is that you can target customers with a potentially higher lifetime value. By focusing your marketing efforts on the right prospects, you'll ensure that budgets are being spent wisely and that you're not wasting valuable marketing dollars communicating with consumers who either won't respond or aren't a fit for your business. Customer-driven marketing enables you to identify and reach the most profitable, highly responsive prospects in the most efficient way, while also engaging with current customers to optimize retention rates. When you create marketing programs that are customer-driven, you're not just selling; you're building relationships. Rather than being simply a service provider, you become a trusted financial partner and advisor. This kind of data-driven customer experience can help you onboard more customers and retain them for longer, translating to better results when it comes to your bottom line. Customer-driven marketing: How to get started Customer-driven marketing is less funnel, more spiral. You research, test, refine and repeat, all while taking into account customer feedback and campaign results. It starts with defining your target audience and creating customer personas. As you do this, think about all the factors that are involved in your target customers’ path to purchase, from general awareness and growing need to the final motivation that pushes them to commit. You'll also want to consider what their pain points may be and the barriers that may prevent them from buying. Next, develop a marketing strategy that aligns with your target customers' needs and outlines how and where you'll reach them. It may also be helpful to gather and respond to customer feedback to ensure the value propositions in your campaigns are aligned with customer expectations. These insights can help you refine your messaging, resulting in increased response and retention rates. Use the right data to extend relevant credit offers When you send credit offers, you want to ensure they're reaching the right prospects at the right time. You also want to make sure these credit offers are relevant to the consumers that receive them. That's where quality data comes in. By optimizing your data-driven customer segmentation, you can develop timely and personalized credit offers to boost response rates. For example, you might have a target audience of consumers who are both creditworthy and looking for a new vehicle. Segmenting this audience into smaller groups by demographic, life stage, financial and other factors helps you create credit marketing campaigns that speak to each type of customer as an individual, not just a number. Meet consumers on their preferred channels Nowadays, consumer behavior is more fragmented than ever. This is relevant not just from a demographic point of view, but from the perspective of purchasing behavior. Customer-driven marketing helps you interact with prospects as individuals so that the value propositions they encounter are a true fit for their life situation. For instance, different age groups tend to spend time on different platforms. But why they're on those channels at any particular time matters too. Messaging aimed at prospects in their leisure time should be different from messaging they'll encounter when actively researching potential purchases. Keep up with your customers This is one answer to the question of how to improve customer retention as well. Research demonstrates that it's more cost-effective to keep a customer than to acquire a new one. When you tailor retention efforts with a well-thought-out customer-driven marketing strategy, you're likely to boost retention rates, which in many cases lead to better profits over time. Importance of a customer-driven marketing strategy Putting consumers at the center of credit marketing strategies — and at the center of your business as a whole — is the foundation for personalized experiences that can ultimately increase response rates and customer satisfaction. For more on how your organization can develop an effective customer-driven marketing strategy, learn about our credit marketing solutions.

A funnel describes marketing and sales opportunities because it is the widest at the top and narrowest at the bottom. This is an accurate representation because only a fraction of consumers who enter a sales funnel will become buyers. At the top of the funnel, you find consumers exploring and learning about purchase options. These consumers respond to awareness-based marketing regarding vehicle features or comparisons. They are not typically focused on pricing but rather just learning about options. In the middle of the funnel is where you find customers getting closer to a vehicle purchase. They are evaluating their options, including new versus used, and exploring specific units on consumer sites. These consumers have moved beyond general market awareness and vehicle feature interest and into evaluating what vehicle features meet their needs and what price range and financing options may best suit their budget. During this time, marketing and sales contacts with specific incentives or vehicles of interest-based marketing are effective. Nearing the lower funnel As you near the lower funnel, you will find consumers who are initiating the process with the intent to purchase. These consumers are visiting consumer shopping sites for used vehicle research as well as dealer websites. Used vehicle consumers are visiting Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) and viewing vehicle history reports. These lower funnel consumers are exploring trade-in values and trying to put together their vehicle sale and purchase plan. There are many ways lower funnel opportunities interact with the automotive ecosystem. With improvements in digital retailing even when just one small part of the sales process is initiated prior to the consumer visiting the brick-and-mortar store, dealers have an opportunity to capture these lower-funnel consumers. Some effective examples include quick “sell your trade” links or prequalification links on web pages that allow consumers to obtain trade values/trade offers and, in some cases, to get full prequalification for loans. Often these digital retailing features are able to track and communicate to dealers about these lower funnel and fully engaged consumers. Take advantage of lower funnel leads with digital retailing tools As online digital retailing steps become more commonplace, dealers will find themselves leveraging these leads for sales. Utilizing effective, consumer-friendly, and secure functions that allow consumers to access or work through the components of a sale will maximize engagement. Keeping consumers tied to your website during the process can keep them working with your dealership processes. To learn how Experian Automotive can help you gain lower funnel opportunities, contact Mike Costanzo.

In previous posts, I’ve explored the potential ramifications of the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) and how it will impact agency plans such as Medicaid eligibility redeterminations. Many states may have already prepared a risk-based approach to address the unwinding process. States need to balance these plans with onboarding new applicants and maintaining the service levels required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Regardless of the approach, states should look for efficiency in all aspects of the redeterminations process, including aligning pending work with other program recertifications and maximizing the use of available information and tools. What does the end of the PHE mean for state agencies? From the end of the PHE, state agencies will have 12 months to initiate all citizen eligibility renewals and a total of 14 months to complete them. States may begin the unwinding process 60 days prior to the month in which the PHE ends. Many states have already begun Medicaid eligibility redeterminations in an effort to meet this deadline. CMS has provided extensive guidance in their Planning for Resumption document, which state agencies can refer to for full details. Building a proper redeterminations plan Redeterminations plans should verify citizen information with all available information, including residency, age, income, and deceased status. These plans should also support the assessment of identity risk and have the ability to ensure continuous outreach with accurate mailing addresses, phone numbers for calls and texts, email addresses, and assessments of returned mail. CMS guidance encourages states to verify eligibility requirements by mail, email, and other communications channels while minimizing the amount of time and documentation required of beneficiaries. The benefit of standing up this structure? More effective day-forward solutions that can help agencies assess any new and ongoing benefits requests and maintain accurate eligibility lists.   How can Experian help? Experian® has a range of products designed to help organizations verify contact information, such as phone numbers and mailing addresses, as well as income and employment. Our exclusive income and employment data can be leveraged incrementally in non-automated verification methods so that individuals not found by other services can be processed quickly via batch processing — minimizing any impact to beneficiaries while improving overall program performance. Our address verification tools provide improved outreach to beneficiaries with the best and most accurate mailing addresses, leveraging the National Change of Address (NCOA) database, as well as phone number information. The phone number information includes a mobile phone indicator, enabling text message outreach. Additionally, Experian can provide email address provisioning to verify or provide email addresses, which creates another path for contact. All of this helps agencies develop better redeterminations plans to manage the end of the PHE, and better process future benefits requests. To learn more about how we can help, visit us or request a call.