Experian
Encyclopedia
Experian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland
and operational headquarters in Nottingham
, England
and Costa Mesa, California
, US. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange
and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index
.
Its databases contain credit information on 215 million people in the United States and 450 million vehicles, including title and registration data. It provides address information for more than 20 billion promotional mail items to more than 100 million households every year. Experian also provides credit reports on businesses. This business unit partnered with eCredit (now Cortera
) in June 2007.
Like the other major credit reporting bureaus, Experian is chiefly regulated in the United States by the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(FCRA). The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act
of 2003, signed into law in 2003, amended the FCRA to require the credit reporting companies to provide consumers with one free copy of their credit report per 12 month period. Like its main competitors, TransUnion
and Equifax
, Experian markets credit reports directly to consumers. Experian heavily markets its for-profit credit reporting service, FreeCreditReport.com
, and all three agencies have been criticized and even sued for selling credit reports that can be obtained at no cost.
Experian US handles its credit disputes in its National Consumer Assistance Center (NCAC) in Allen
, Texas. You may contact the NCAC once you have a copy of your personal credit report by calling the number that is located on the personal credit report itself. Experian opened a second NCAC in Santiago, Chile
during the summer of 2007. Many divisions of the Allen NCAC as well as several other business functions including software development have been relocated to the Chile
location.
Experian provides regional data at nationalscoreindex.com which shows average credit scores by region and zip code as well as various other measures of household debt. The site does not indicate if it uses a FICO based credit score
, the new VantageScore
, or some other scoring model.
The company's largest operation is Experian North America, a consumer credit reporting agency that is considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Equifax
and TransUnion
. (There is also a 4th credit agency known as Innovis
.) In addition to the US, Experian has operations in most European countries, as well as Argentina
, Brazil, Chile
, Costa Rica, South Africa, China, India
, Malaysia, Japan and Australia.
as CCN systems, an information services business owned by GUS plc
.
In 1996 GUS plc acquired the US credit reporting business Experian, formerly known as TRW Information Services
, from Bain Capital
and the Thomas H. Lee Partners
. GUS combined Experian with CCN. GUS retained the Experian name for its combined credit services subsidiary.
In 2004 Experian acquired CheetahMail, a business founded in 1998 that provided e-mail marketing software
and services. In the same year Experian also acquired QAS, a supplier of contact data management and identity verification solutions.
In 2005 Experian became the first company to win the UK Business of the Year award twice, having also won in 2003.
In August 2005 Experian accepted a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) over charges that Experian had violated a previous settlement with the FTC. The FTC's allegations concerned customers who signed up for the "free credit report" at Experian's Consumerinfo.com site. The FTC alleged that ads for the "free credit report" did not adequately disclose that Experian would automatically enroll customers in Experian's $79.95 credit-monitoring program.
In 2005 Experian acquired PriceGrabber for $485 million. Also in 2005, Experian acquired FootFall
, an information provider to the retail and retail property industries: FootFall
is now a part of Experian's marketing solutions division. Still in 2005, Experian acquired LowerMyBills.com for $330 million USD.
In September 2006 Experian announced its purchase of Northern Credit Bureaus, located in Quebec
, Canada.
In October 2006 Experian was demerged
from the British company GUS plc
and listed on the London Stock Exchange
.
In mid-2007 Experian acquired a number of software companies with products that filled gaps in their existing portfolio. The intention was to be able to offer Experian's customers an Experian-branded product for all phases of the customer lifecycle. These included:
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and operational headquarters in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Costa Mesa, California
Costa Mesa, California
Costa Mesa is a city in Orange County, California. The population was 109,960 at the 2010 census. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to a primarily suburban and "edge" city with an economy based on retail, commerce, and light...
, US. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index
FTSE 100 Index
The FTSE 100 Index, also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the footsie , is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange....
.
Operations
Experian's principal lines of business are credit services, marketing solutions, decision analytics and interactive services. The company collects information on people, businesses, motor vehicles and insurance. It also collects 'lifestyle' data from on- and off-line surveys.Its databases contain credit information on 215 million people in the United States and 450 million vehicles, including title and registration data. It provides address information for more than 20 billion promotional mail items to more than 100 million households every year. Experian also provides credit reports on businesses. This business unit partnered with eCredit (now Cortera
Cortera
Cortera, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, USA, is a provider of credit information on businesses and corporations. The company provides business information with a database containing a number of private and public U.S. companies, analytics about each of those companies, and workflow software...
) in June 2007.
Like the other major credit reporting bureaus, Experian is chiefly regulated in the United States by the Fair Credit Reporting Act
Fair Credit Reporting Act
The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a United States federal law that regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer information, including consumer credit information. Along with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act , it forms the base of consumer credit rights in the United States...
(FCRA). The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act
Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 is a United States federal law, passed by the United States Congress on November 22, 2003, and signed by President George W. Bush on December 4, 2003, as an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act...
of 2003, signed into law in 2003, amended the FCRA to require the credit reporting companies to provide consumers with one free copy of their credit report per 12 month period. Like its main competitors, TransUnion
TransUnion
TransUnion is the third largest credit bureau in the United States, which offers credit-related information to potential creditors. Like major competitors Equifax and Experian, TransUnion markets credit reports directly to consumers.- History :...
and Equifax
Equifax
Equifax Inc. is a consumer credit reporting agency in the United States, considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Experian and TransUnion. Founded in 1899, Equifax is the oldest of the three agencies and gathers and maintains information on over 400 million credit...
, Experian markets credit reports directly to consumers. Experian heavily markets its for-profit credit reporting service, FreeCreditReport.com
FreeCreditReport.com
FreeCreditScore.com and FreeCreditReport.com are websites owned by Experian Consumer Direct, a subsidiary of the credit bureau Experian. The sites offer users their personal credit reports from Experian on the condition that they sign up for Experian's Triple Advantage credit monitoring program for...
, and all three agencies have been criticized and even sued for selling credit reports that can be obtained at no cost.
Experian US handles its credit disputes in its National Consumer Assistance Center (NCAC) in Allen
Allen, Texas
Allen is a city in Collin County, Texas, United States, a northern suburb of Dallas. As of the 2010 census the city had a total population of 84,246.-Geography:According to the City of Allen, the city has a total area of...
, Texas. You may contact the NCAC once you have a copy of your personal credit report by calling the number that is located on the personal credit report itself. Experian opened a second NCAC in Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
during the summer of 2007. Many divisions of the Allen NCAC as well as several other business functions including software development have been relocated to the Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
location.
Experian provides regional data at nationalscoreindex.com which shows average credit scores by region and zip code as well as various other measures of household debt. The site does not indicate if it uses a FICO based credit score
Credit score
A credit score is a numerical expression based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of that person...
, the new VantageScore
VantageScore
VantageScore is the name of a credit rating product that is offered by the three major credit bureaus . The product was unveiled by the three bureaus on 14 March 2006...
, or some other scoring model.
The company's largest operation is Experian North America, a consumer credit reporting agency that is considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Equifax
Equifax
Equifax Inc. is a consumer credit reporting agency in the United States, considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Experian and TransUnion. Founded in 1899, Equifax is the oldest of the three agencies and gathers and maintains information on over 400 million credit...
and TransUnion
TransUnion
TransUnion is the third largest credit bureau in the United States, which offers credit-related information to potential creditors. Like major competitors Equifax and Experian, TransUnion markets credit reports directly to consumers.- History :...
. (There is also a 4th credit agency known as Innovis
Innovis
Innovis is the 4th credit bureau in the United States, the other three being Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Currently, a much smaller number of companies use Innovis for credit reporting, one being Trade Capital Company...
.) In addition to the US, Experian has operations in most European countries, as well as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Brazil, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Costa Rica, South Africa, China, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Malaysia, Japan and Australia.
History
The Company was founded by John Peace in 1980 in NottinghamNottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
as CCN systems, an information services business owned by GUS plc
GUS (retailer)
GUS plc was a FTSE 100 retailing group based in the United Kingdom. GUS is an abbreviation of Great Universal Stores, the company's former name before 2001...
.
In 1996 GUS plc acquired the US credit reporting business Experian, formerly known as TRW Information Services
TRW
TRW Inc. was an American corporation involved in a variety of businesses, mainly aerospace, automotive, and credit reporting. It was a pioneer in multiple fields including electronic components, integrated circuits, computers, software and systems engineering. TRW built many spacecraft,...
, from Bain Capital
Bain Capital
Bain Capital LLC is a Boston-based private equity firm founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company. Originally conceived as an early-stage, growth-oriented investment fund, Bain Capital today manages approximately $65 billion in assets, and its strategies include private...
and the Thomas H. Lee Partners
Thomas H. Lee Partners
Thomas H. Lee Partners is a private equity firm based in Boston, Massachusetts specializing in leveraged buyouts, growth capital, special situations, industry consolidations, and recapitalizations....
. GUS combined Experian with CCN. GUS retained the Experian name for its combined credit services subsidiary.
In 2004 Experian acquired CheetahMail, a business founded in 1998 that provided e-mail marketing software
E-mail marketing software
Email marketing software refers to a computer application which provides the ability to send bulk email to target audiences. The intent is usually to send newsletters or promotional materials to opt-in lists of subscribers, although the software can be used to send unsolicited email...
and services. In the same year Experian also acquired QAS, a supplier of contact data management and identity verification solutions.
In 2005 Experian became the first company to win the UK Business of the Year award twice, having also won in 2003.
In August 2005 Experian accepted a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
(FTC) over charges that Experian had violated a previous settlement with the FTC. The FTC's allegations concerned customers who signed up for the "free credit report" at Experian's Consumerinfo.com site. The FTC alleged that ads for the "free credit report" did not adequately disclose that Experian would automatically enroll customers in Experian's $79.95 credit-monitoring program.
In 2005 Experian acquired PriceGrabber for $485 million. Also in 2005, Experian acquired FootFall
Experian FootFall
FootFall Ltd was founded in 1991 by John Gallagher and Brian Barnes. The company initially sold hardware solutions designed to measure pedestrian flows within UK shopping centres. The company evolved into a provider of information services based on pedestrian flow. FootFall systems are installed in...
, an information provider to the retail and retail property industries: FootFall
Experian FootFall
FootFall Ltd was founded in 1991 by John Gallagher and Brian Barnes. The company initially sold hardware solutions designed to measure pedestrian flows within UK shopping centres. The company evolved into a provider of information services based on pedestrian flow. FootFall systems are installed in...
is now a part of Experian's marketing solutions division. Still in 2005, Experian acquired LowerMyBills.com for $330 million USD.
In September 2006 Experian announced its purchase of Northern Credit Bureaus, located in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada.
In October 2006 Experian was demerged
Demerger
Demerger is a form of corporate restructuring in which the an entity's business operations are segregated into one or more components. It is the converse of a merger or acquisition....
from the British company GUS plc
GUS (retailer)
GUS plc was a FTSE 100 retailing group based in the United Kingdom. GUS is an abbreviation of Great Universal Stores, the company's former name before 2001...
and listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
.
In mid-2007 Experian acquired a number of software companies with products that filled gaps in their existing portfolio. The intention was to be able to offer Experian's customers an Experian-branded product for all phases of the customer lifecycle. These included:
- Emailing Solution, a French e-mail marketingE-mail marketingEmail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses email as a means of communicating commercial or fund-raising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing...
company. The intention was to grow the existing CheetahMail business with the acquisition of this new client portfolio.
- HitwiseHitwiseExperian Hitwise is a global online competitive intelligence service which collects data directly from ISP networks to aid website managers in analysing trends in visitor behavior and to measure website market share. The Hitwise product is a commercial platform whereby customers pay Hitwise a...
, an internet monitor that collects data directly from information service provider networks.Hitwise acquisition press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-01.
- TallymanTallymanA tallyman is an individual who keeps a numerical record with tally marks, historically often on tally sticks.-Vote counter:In Ireland, it is common for political parties to provide private observers when ballot boxes are opened...
debt collection management software from BristolBristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
-based Talgentra.Experian Acquires Tallyman Collections Software. Retrieved on 2009-01-23
In January 2008 Experian announced that it would cut over 200 jobs at its Nottingham office as it moved development work to India to reduce costs.Experian to cut 200 jobs Computer Weekly. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
Experian shut down its Canadian operations on 2009-04-18.
Experian purchases RentBureau in June 2010, which houses rental payment histories on over 7 million US residents, this data will now be included in Experian US consumer credit reports as of January 2011.
Experian purchases a majority stake in Techlightenment on 17 January 2011, as part of Experian's strategy to grow its digital marketing capabilities. Techlightenment is a data driven technology and marketing company based in the UK, which helps clients to leverage advertising through key social media platforms. Techlightenment will form part of the UK Experian Marketing Services Division.
Experian released financial 2011 year end results on the 18th May, 2011. Highlights include the following:- 13% rise in annual pre-tax profits to $679m from $600m.
- Sales are up 9% to $4.24 bn from $3.88bn.
- Dividends payment of 28 cents an increase of 22% year on year.
Experian delivered growth across all of their four key regions, organic growth was 2% in the UK and Ireland, 7% in EMEA/Asia Pacific, 7% North America and 19% in Latin America.
Experian also produced growth across all four key business units, with 7% from Credit Services, 4% at Decision Analytics, 11% at Marketing Services and 9% at Interactive.
Senior management
role salary bonus total Don Robert Chief executive officer $1,400,000 $2,370,000 $3,770,000 Paul Brooks Chief financial officer £460,000 £779,000 £1,239,000
Financial Education
Experian undertakes public financial education activities in several countries where it operates a consumer credit bureau, including the United States, the UK and Brazil.
See also
- CallcreditCallcreditCallcredit Limited is a credit reference agency. Credit reference agencies collect and store details about consumers and their personal credit history...
- CompuscanCompuscanCompuscan is a South African credit bureau that provides consumer and commercial credit information within South Africa and other African nations....
- Credit bureauCredit bureauA credit bureau , or credit reference agency is a company that collects information from various sources and provides consumer credit information on individual consumers for a variety of uses. It is an organization providing information on individuals' borrowing and bill paying habits...
- Credit rating agencyCredit rating agencyA Credit rating agency is a company that assigns credit ratings for issuers of certain types of debt obligations as well as the debt instruments themselves...
- Freecreditreport.comFreeCreditReport.comFreeCreditScore.com and FreeCreditReport.com are websites owned by Experian Consumer Direct, a subsidiary of the credit bureau Experian. The sites offer users their personal credit reports from Experian on the condition that they sign up for Experian's Triple Advantage credit monitoring program for...
- Identity theftIdentity theftIdentity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...
- IntelliscoreIntelliscoreAn Intelliscore is a term used in business, for a numerical score granted by Experian to Business as a credit score for the promptness of their payments to creditors...
External links
- Experiangroup.com, Homepage
- Experian.com, Official US Website
- Experian.co.uk, Official UK Website
- Experian.com.my, Official Malaysia Website
- Experian.co.jp, Official Japanese Website
- Nationalscoreindex.com, National Score Index
- Experain Protect My ID, Official Experain Protect My ID Website
- Experain QAS, Official Experain QAS Website
- Hitwise