Experian enables better credit access for small businesses; provides complete view of fundamental data required for credit risk assessment

COSTA MESA, Calif., Jan. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In its commitment to support growth and financial inclusion for small businesses, Experian^®, the leading global information services company, today announced further enhancements to its Small Business Credit Share^SM (SBCS) program. These new elements enable users to obtain deeper insights into the payment performance and credit history of companies, ultimately promoting greater credit access for small businesses.

"Our SBCS platform is built to facilitate open and secure data sharing with the ability to leverage both financial and nonfinancial data. This inclusive type of system provides lenders and creditors with a more complete view of a business's creditworthiness enabling them to make smarter decisions, while helping small business owners gain access to the financial capital they need," said Hiq Lee, president of Experian's Business Information Services. "We believe SBCS facilitates greater access to bank and trade credit, enabling small businesses to expand their operations, purchase more inventory and hire more employees, which ultimately drives the economy forward."

The new enhancements to the SBCS program include new scoring models; updated report format and features; and integration with Experian's decisioning and application management platform, DecisionIQ^SM.

• New scoring models -- The new highly predictive risk models have the ability to leverage multiple databases, including Experian's BizSource^SM (for commercial only), File One^SM (for blended reporting) and Small Business Credit Share (consortium data). The models provide unique insight into the credit history of a small business and its owner. Furthermore, the new risk models provide a deeper assessment of historical trends of a small business's past payment and credit utilization performance, as well as the ability to predict the likelihood of delinquent payment further into the future.
• New report format and features -- The enhanced SBCS report provides assessment of credit and fraud risk and compliance checks in one report. Quick-glimpse views visually direct a user's focus to key information needed for business decisions and precise small-business credit risk assessment:
  • Risk dashboard: Highlights potential risk tied to payment behavior, legal filings and fraud. It also is color-coded to help highlight areas of higher risk.
  • Commercial Fraud Shield^SM: Provides a series of checks to screen for potential indicators of fraudulent activity. These include Office of Foreign Assets Control, victim and inconsistencies checks.
  • Small Business Credit Share^SM financial acquisition score:  Predicts the likelihood of seriously derogatory payment on a financial trade within the next 24 months. Both commercial and blended versions are available using 260 new SBCS aggregates, more than half of which are trend indicators.
  • Performance trending: Provides 36-month financial, revolving and total account utilization trends, as well as a 36-month view of delinquency and payments.
• Integration with Decision IQ -- SBCS members now can leverage Experian's decisioning and application management platform with SBCS data. With this new ability, users can configure an application form and set custom policies to automate how an application is handled, saving time and resources by reducing the number of manual applications reviewed.

"Our SBCS program is designed to promote small-business growth by facilitating a more meaningful dialogue between lenders and trade creditors and their customers," continued Lee. "The new enhancements enable better risk assessment, which can be used for more informed decisioning strategies, including extensions of credit, loan approvals or an advancement of services."

Launched in 2007, Experian's Small Business Credit Share program is designed to provide a complete view of the fundamental data required for small-business credit risk assessment, which promotes financial inclusion and spurs growth in the small-business segment. SBCS enables clients in financial and nonfinancial (including trade credit) industries to contribute data from their commercial portfolios, such as lines of credit, credit cards, loans and leases, and accounts receivable information. In exchange, members receive exclusive access to unique account data from financial and nonfinancial trade contributors. The program also leverages Experian's commercial and consumer credit databases, providing members with information on tradelines, collections and public filings, helping them to make more insightful lending decisions.

About Experian's Business Information Services
Experian's Business Information Services is a leader in providing data and predictive insights to organizations, helping them mitigate risk and improve profitability. The company's business database provides comprehensive, third-party-verified information on virtually all U.S. companies, with the industry's most extensive data on the broad spectrum of small and midsize businesses.

By leveraging state-of-the-art technology and superior data-compilation techniques, Experian provides market-leading tools that proactively support the entire credit life cycle, enabling our clients to find new customers, process new applications, manage customer relationships and collect on delinquent accounts.

About Experian
We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making.

We also help people to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft. In 2015, we were named by Forbes magazine as one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies."
We employ approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2015, was US$4.8 billion.

To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, "Inside Experian."

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Jordan Takeyama
Experian Public Relations
1 714 830 7561
[email protected] 
Twitter: @JordanTakeyama

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SOURCE Experian

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