Welcome to the Experian Thought Leadership Hub

In this episode, we discuss the growing economic crosswinds affecting small businesses, recent employment trends, consumer spending patterns, and the impressive growth of minority-owned businesses in the U.S. We highlight the challenges and opportunities these businesses face, particularly in accessing needed capital.

📌 41% of new commercial accounts are minority-owned, yet access to capital remains a barrier.

📌 44% of minority-owned businesses are less than six years old, showing strong entrepreneurial momentum.

📌 Industries like retail, construction, and healthcare are fueling this expansion.

For lenders, this represents an untapped market and a business opportunity with high growth potential.

Check out the full report to see how these trends could impact your strategy!

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Key themes and emerging trends shaping financial services in 2025, using research and insight from leading industry analysts. Themes include:

• Fraud evolution driven by AI
  
• AI will play a transformative role in banking
  
• Emergence of RegTech
  
• Convergence of risk management

Recent statistics reveal a direct connection between employee identity theft and business vulnerabilities. Compromised employee credentials can be a common entry point for fraudsters and putting your organization’s cybersecurity at risk. 

• Up to 80% of cyberattacks leverage identity-based attack methods, and many breaches stem from phishing attacks targeting employee login details
  
• The average cost of a data breach was $4.88 million in 2024, the highest average on record.
  
• Cyberattacks are becoming more common, striking 4,000 times per day.

While all eyes are on the impact of tariffs, immigration policy, and other proposals coming out of the new administration, the five key trends that I’ll be watching in 2025 have been playing out over the last couple of years and will be important to how the economy and lending market unfolds in the year ahead.

Trends include:

• The slowdown in the “white-collar” job market
• The stabilization of consumer delinquency
• The letting up of lending standard tightening

Explore state-level and industry level data that banks, credit unions and fintechs can leverage to track the downturn and be correctly positioned for the recovery in this monthly report.

Credit risk, fraud, and compliance have long operated in silos, but forward-thinking organizations are unlocking new opportunities through convergence.

Read our e-book to learn how aligning these critical functions can help you:

• Reduce overall risk
• Improve operational efficiency
• Stay ahead of the competition

In today's fast-paced world, locating individuals quickly is crucial for debt collectors and lenders. TrueTrace™, Experian’s leading skip tracing software, has undergone significant enhancements, improving data accuracy and expanding data sources.

These upgrades offer:

• Increased right-party contact (RPC) rates
• Better cost efficiency
• Improved user experience

Call blocking, mislabeling, and increased scam activity have led to a decline in RPC rates. TrueTrace addresses these challenges with enhanced data accuracy, using an identity graph to tie data from disparate sources to a unique identity profile for each consumer.

TrueTrace's enhancements represent a significant advancement in skip tracing technology, helping businesses achieve better results and operational efficiency.

Experian's State of Credit Unions Report explores data-driven credit trends in the credit union space, with a particular focus on auto loans, unsecured personal loans and unsecured credit cards.

Take a deep dive into:

• Trends in originations and delinquencies among credit union members
• How credit unions fare against other financial institutions
• Strategies to attract new members and mitigate portfolio risk

This week's Commercial Pulse Report highlights key economic trends and small business credit conditions, providing insights for lenders, risk professionals, and business leaders.

The U.S. economy continues to face high interest rates and shifting market conditions:

• Inflation rose to 2.9% in December, marking its third consecutive increase and the highest level since July 2024.
• Unemployment declined to 4.0% in January, the lowest level since April 2024, but job growth slowed, with only 143K jobs added.
• Q4 GDP grew at 2.3%, down from 3.1% in Q3, indicating a moderate but slowing expansion.
• The Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady, reinforcing concerns about persistent inflation.

This report features the latest findings from the Experian Small Business Index™, a data-driven tool tracking small business financial health.

Check out the full report to see how these trends could impact your strategy!

Subscribe to Commercial Pulse Report