As we transition into the cooler months, the economic landscape is shifting, bringing with it a set of risks that could directly affect the financial health of small businesses. For commercial finance professionals, staying ahead of these challenges is critical. The Fall 2024 Beyond The Trends Report offers must-have insights for those looking to mitigate risks and safeguard their portfolios. What’s inside the report? Economic Cooling & Small Business Stability: How the current economic slowdown is likely to affect the financial stability of small businesses, and what it means for your clients. Generation Z Credit Reliance: The growing dependence on credit by Gen Z consumers raises concerns about long-term risks for businesses, particularly during the holiday season when spending peaks. Holiday Sales Pressure: Small businesses often generate up to 30% of their annual revenue during the holiday season. Learn how they are managing cash flow, inventory, and navigating uncertainty to stay afloat. Supply Chain Strain: Global delays, rising transportation costs, and ongoing disruptions are squeezing small businesses. Understand the full impact and how it could affect credit health and loan repayments. Actionable Strategies for Financial Services: The report provides data-backed strategies that finance professionals can use to assess and mitigate risk while supporting small business clients through this volatile period. Download the full Fall 2024 Beyond The Trends Report now for the expert analysis and data you need to manage risk and support the small business sector during this critical time. Download Fall Beyond The Trends Report Commercial Insights Hub

Insights from the 10/1/24 Commercial Pulse Report I’m excited to share the current Experian Commercial Pulse Report with you. I have the opportunity each week to analyze data on the millions of U.S. small businesses in Experian’s database and discover actionable insights that benefit our clients. Making these discoveries is rewarding work, and we utilize these insights to guide our recommendations. I thought I would share what I am watching through Experian’s bi-weekly Commercial Pulse Report (just bookmark the link; we will update it on a bi-weekly basis). Watch our Commercial Pulse Update Women entrepreneurs thrive In this week’s report, we take a closer look at the burgeoning population of Women-owned businesses. Did you know women are making a living being self-employed at higher rates than men? In the current economic climate represent a larger proportion of newer businesses. This trend is evident as women own a higher percentage of businesses that are 3-5 years old and under 3 years old. In contrast, more established businesses are predominantly owned by men, indicating a shift over time as more women start their own ventures. One challenge for women-led businesses is accessing traditional lending products, as newer businesses appear riskier. Consequently, women are more likely to rely on credit cards with lower limits than their male counterparts. What I'm watching: Women are self-employed at higher rates than men, making up a larger share of new businesses. The Federal Reserve's recent half-point rate cut suggests they no longer see high rates as necessary to combat inflation. Despite a slight weakening, labor market remains strong, with more employment, lower participation, and more vacancies than pre-pandemic. Download Commercial Pulse Report Commercial Insights Hub Related Posts

Experian’s Sentinel™ Commercial Entity Fraud Suite received a silver medal for "Best Know Your Customer/Business (KYC/KYB) Innovation" in the 2024 Impact Awards in AML (anti-money laundering).The award was given by Datos Insights, a global advisory firm providing mission-critical insights to the Financial Services industry. The Sentinel Suite addresses complex challenges that inhibit financial institutions’ capability to safely capture new business while limiting fraud exposure. Leveraging Experian's more than 250 million consumer files and more than 28 million business records, as well as advanced analytics and machine learning techniques, the suite delivers comprehensive fraud detection, greater operational efficiency, flexible risk assessment and decisioning, and improved customer experiences. "Given the AI-driven acceleration of fraud attacks, coupled with the lightning-fast speed of simply doing business in a highly competitive digital marketplace, lenders need a solution that delivers single, actionable pass-fail insights in real-time to help them make informed decisions quickly and efficiently," said Brian Bond, Senior Vice President of Experian’s Business Information Services (BIS). "Sentinel works with our Precise ID and CrossCore platforms to offer KYC and KYB verification at unrivaled speed, and we deeply appreciate Datos Insights’ recognition of the value that the suite offers to our customers." Datos Insights defined this category as featuring new solutions, innovations, or data sets that streamline and enrich the KYC/KYB processes underlying the onboarding, servicing, ongoing risk profiling, and due diligence of individual and corporate customers. In this context, Sentinel is bridging the gap between business and owner verification to create a seamless onboarding experience that helps lenders and creditors grow without fear. "The financial crime landscape continues to evolve rapidly, with criminals employing increasingly sophisticated techniques to evade detection. Traditional approaches to fraud prevention and AML compliance are often insufficient to keep pace with these evolving threats," said Chuck Subrt, Fraud & AML Practice Director at Datos Insights. "In response to these challenges, the industry is seeking innovative tools and solutions that can streamline processes, reduce false positives, uncover hidden risks, and provide more comprehensive and accurate risk coverage." Datos Insights found "Experian's commitment to ongoing innovation suggests that Sentinel will continue to evolve and address emerging industry needs. The results reported by clients using Sentinel Suite are impressive, with considerable improvements in fraud detection rates, accuracy, and operational efficiency. These realized benefits, combined with its promise to elevate regulatory compliance and customer experience, make it an effective tool for FIs looking to enhance their risk management capabilities." About Datos Insights Datos Insights delivers the most comprehensive and industry-specific data and advice to the companies trusted to protect and grow the world’s assets, and to the technology and service providers who support them. Staffed by experienced industry executives, researchers, and consultants, we support the world’s most progressive banks, insurers, investment firms, and technology companies through a mix of insights and advisory subscriptions, data services, custom projects and consulting, conferences, and executive councils. Visit datos-insights.com to learn more. About Experian Experian is a global data and technology company, powering opportunities for people and businesses around the world. We help to redefine lending practices, uncover and prevent fraud, simplify healthcare, deliver digital marketing solutions, and gain deeper insights into the automotive market, all using our unique combination of data, analytics and software. We also assist millions of people to realize their financial goals and help them to save time and money. We operate across a range of markets, from financial services to healthcare, automotive, agrifinance, insurance, and many more industry segments. We invest in talented people and new advanced technologies to unlock the power of data and innovate. As a FTSE 100 Index company listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN), we have a team of 22,500 people across 32 countries. Our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. Learn more at  experianplc.com.

I’m excited to share the current Experian Commercial Pulse Report with you. I have the opportunity each week to analyze data on the millions of U.S. small businesses in Experian’s database and discover actionable insights that benefit our clients. Making these discoveries is rewarding work, and we utilize these insights to guide our recommendations. I thought I would share what I am watching through Experian’s bi-weekly Commercial Pulse Report (just bookmark the link; we will update it on a bi-weekly basis). What I am watching this week: Population and business growth in the Southern U.S. have outpaced other regions since 2021, but both are now slowing, impacting commercial credit access and delinquency rates. We include some interesting insights in this release. Population migration to southern states slows as commercial credit dips National existing home sales up in July ending streak of monthly declines PCE inflation rate stayed unchanged at 2.5% in July, suggesting the Federal Reserve may lower interest rates in September Download Commercial Pulse Report Commercial Insights Hub Related Posts

Experian is very pleased to announce the release of the Q2 2024 Main Street Report. Join us for a deep dive on Q2 performance Experian will share key findings from our Q2 Main Street Report in the Quarterly Business Credit Review: Tuesday, August 20th, 10:00 a.m. Pacific | 1:00 p.m. Eastern Register to attend Small businesses resilient amid growing volatility The excitement of a U.S. Election cycle in the fall, a cooling economy, rising unemployment, and a turbulent international landscape all play into a fall filled with anxious sentiment but stable cash flows. The economy has been humming at a stable pace over the last two quarters. Consumers have been spending their wage gains while not overleveraging their cards. This stability in the market has led small businesses to operate in the US at pace with expectations. Growth has been slow as credit markets, although open, have tightened underwriting policies that limit both the consumer and small business from gaining access to low-cost funding to enter a season of true growth in the US. The economy is cooling, and the market expectations for a Federal Funds Rate cut are rising. Download the latest report for more insight. Download the Q2 2024 report now

I’m excited to share the current Experian Commercial Pulse Report with you. I have the opportunity each week to analyze data on the millions of U.S. small businesses in Experian’s database and discover actionable insights that benefit our clients. Making these discoveries is rewarding work, and we utilize these insights to guide our recommendations. I thought I would share what I am watching through Experian’s bi-weekly Commercial Pulse Report (just bookmark the link; we will update it on a bi-weekly basis). This week's report contains some compelling insight into commercial fraud. In 2002, a Trustpair Institute for Finance & Management survey reported 56% of businesses had reported some sort of fraud attempt, in 2023 the survey shows 96% of businesses reporting fraud attempts. What I'm watching: The growing financial fraud problem: Consumers lost a staggering $10 billion to fraud in 2022, marking a 14% increase from 2021. Already, a shocking 5 billion records were found on the dark web this year, matching the 2023 total. The economy grew 2.8% in Q2. The Fed leaves interest rates flat but leaves the door open for a potential cut at the September meeting. That’s a quick take – Download the latest report. Download Commercial Pulse Report Commercial Insights Hub Related Posts

Experian delivered the latest insights on small business credit conditions and presented key findings from the Main Street Report for Q2 2024 during the Quarterly Business Credit Review. Our lead presenter, Brodie Oldham, shared his perspective on the macroeconomic environment and then conducted a deep dive into the Q2 Main Street Report and the most recent small business credit data, highlighting what it indicated about how small businesses were performing. The session concluded with a Q&A segment, where we addressed participant questions. Webinar highlights: Expert analysis on commercial and macro-economic trends Credit insights and trends across 30+ million active businesses Industry hot topics, including business owner and small business data Exclusive commercial insights not available elsewhere Interactive peer insights through live polling In-depth exploration of small business trends for strategic decision-making Actionable takeaways based on current credit performance data Get Notified of Future Webinars

Business identity theft is a growing threat that poses significant risks to companies, especially those serving small business customers. This form of fraud can severely impact a company’s financial health and reputation. For B2B firms, understanding and mitigating business identity theft is crucial to protecting their clients and maintaining trust. This blog post will explore the definition of business identity theft, its implications, and why it’s critical for B2B firms to address this issue proactively. What is business identity theft? Business identity theft occurs when a fraudster impersonates a legitimate business to gain access to credit, financial accounts, or goods and services. Unlike personal identity theft, which targets individuals, business identity theft exploits the credentials of a company, which may include the personal credit information of the business principals. Fraudsters may use stolen consumer and business information to open business services accounts for utilities, telecommunications, lines of credit, and loans or make unauthorized purchases, all while leaving the victim business with the financial burden and reputational damage. Mechanics of business identity theft Fraudsters employ various tactics to commit business identity theft, including: Purchasing stolen data on the dark web: Hackers take advantage of loopholes in technology to steal sensitive business information such as tax IDs, bank account details and credit information and list it for sale on the dark web. Phishing: Hackers create elaborate social engineering schemes such as fraudulent emails or websites to deceive business owners into divulging confidential information that can help them get access to systems and services. Public records: Fraudsters exploit publicly available information and triangulate it with stolen data to assume the identity of a business. Synthetic identities: Fraudsters combine real and fake identity elements to create new, fraudulent business entities. Importance of Addressing Business Identity Theft for B2B Firms For B2B firms, particularly those serving small business clients, the repercussions of business identity theft can be far-reaching. Here’s why it’s crucial to address the full scope of business identity theft within your business portfolio: Financial loss: Small businesses and the B2B firms that serve them can suffer significant financial losses due to unauthorized transactions and loans. High financial losses over time can adversely affect the entire market for B2B services. Reputational damage: Affected businesses may lose the trust of customers, suppliers and partners, impacting long-term relationships and market standing. Operational disruption: Recovering from identity theft can divert resources and focus away from core business activities. Legal consequences: Companies may face legal challenges and compliance issues if they fail to protect sensitive business information adequately. Current landscape of Business Identity Theft The increasing digitization of business processes has made it easier for fraudsters to access and misuse business information. Reported fraud losses are up. The FTC reported in 2023 that the Consumer Sentinel Network, a secure online database available only to law enforcement, received 2.4 million fraud reports in 2022, with almost $8.8 billion in total reported losses, up from $6.1 billion in 2021. According to a 2022 article from PYMNTS.com, B2B fraud continues to remain pervasive with 98% of B2B businesses reporting fraud attacks in 2021, having lost an average of 3.5% of their annual sales revenues. Fraudsters are increasingly targeting business credit lines, loans and services like utilities due to the ability to max out higher limits compared to personal accounts. Experian’s Business Identity Theft Score™: Comprehensive solution for B2B firms To combat business identity theft effectively, B2B firms need robust, multifaceted solutions. Experian’s Sentinel™ Commercial Fraud Suite offers a comprehensive approach to tackling commercial fraud, including its newest feature, the Business Identity Theft Score™. Experian’s Business ID Theft Score™ is a non-adverse actionable score designed to predict the probability of business identity theft for use by B2B firms. By leveraging identity elements from business entities and machine-learned models, the score streamlines application processing and manual reviews during account onboarding to stop fraudsters from impersonating a business. The score has additional benefits in reducing the misclassification of fraud as credit losses, providing valuable business intelligence via the ability to identify and differentiate this type of fraud. Investing in robust fraud prevention solutions isn’t just about safeguarding assets; it’s also about maintaining client trust and ensuring operational efficiency. B2B firms should prioritize fraud prevention to protect sensitive business information from unauthorized access and misuse. Business identity theft is a critical issue that can have devastating effects on small businesses and the B2B firms that serve them. By understanding the risks and investing in comprehensive fraud prevention solutions like the Sentinel™ Commercial Fraud Suite, B2B firms can protect their clients, enhance operational efficiency and maintain a strong market reputation. Prioritizing fraud prevention not only safeguards financial assets but also builds a foundation of trust and reliability in the business community. For more information on how the Sentinel Commercial Fraud Suite can help your business combat identity theft, visit our website to contact us today. Stay protected and keep your business thriving in an increasingly digital world. Learn more about Experian's Business ID Theft Score

Experian Summer Beyond The Trends Report Now Available We are excited to announce the release of the Summer 2024 Beyond the Trends report. The report offers a unique view of the small business economy based on what we see in the data. With up-to-date information on over 33 million active businesses and how they perform from a credit standpoint, in this report, Experian shares insights and commentary on how economic conditions, public policy, and other factors might shape future small business performance. Here's our V.P. of Commercial Data Science, Brodie Oldham with his quick take. Overall, the sentiment among small businesses regarding growth is cautiously optimistic. Optimism Despite Challenges There is a general sense of optimism reflected in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index, which has risen to 69.5. Additionally, 73% of small businesses expect higher revenues, and 46% plan to increase investments, indicating positive growth expectations despite facing persistent challenges such as inflation, worker shortages, and rising operational costs. Government Support and Initiatives Various government programs and initiatives are bolstering small business growth by improving access to capital and providing targeted support. These initiatives include the Investing in America Small Business Hub, expansion of Women’s Business Centers, and improvements in the 7(a) and 504 Loan Programs, all aimed at facilitating job creation, growth, and sustainability. Technological Adaptation The adoption of AI and other advanced technologies by small businesses is enhancing operational efficiency and cutting costs. A significant increase in the use of AI-driven systems, such as CRM and automated inventory management, indicates that small businesses are leveraging technology to drive growth and stay competitive. Resilience Amid Economic Pressures Despite facing economic headwinds like tighter credit conditions due to higher interest rates and ongoing supply chain disruptions, small businesses have shown resilience. They continue to navigate these challenges by employing innovative strategies and adapting to the evolving economic landscape. Download your copy of the latest report and check out more insights on small businesses on our Commercial Insights Hub where you can subscribe to updates. Download Beyond The Trends Report Commercial Insights Hub

New business formation strong, making accurate credit risk assessment crucial I’m excited to share the current Experian Commercial Pulse Report with you. I have the opportunity each week to analyze data on the millions of U.S. small businesses in Experian’s database and discover actionable insights that benefit our clients. Making these discoveries is rewarding work, and we utilize these insights to guide our recommendations. I thought I would share what I am watching through Experian’s bi-weekly Commercial Pulse Report (just bookmark the link; we will update it on a bi-weekly basis). This week’s report includes a study about the predictive nature of different credit scores, and how well a consumer risk score versus a commercial risk score or a blended risk score works to predict the future risk of a small business. What I am watching: Unemployment increased to 4.1% in June, the first time over 4% since November 2021. The U.S. economy added 206K new jobs in June while job-openings and job-quits continue to trend downward. 424K new businesses opened in May. The high level of new businesses opening makes it critical for lenders to accurately assess credit risk. That’s a quick take – Download the latest report. Download Commercial Pulse Report Commercial Insights Hub

Unemployment inches up as job growth slows I’m excited to share the current Experian Commercial Pulse Report with you. I have the opportunity each week to analyze data on the millions of U.S. small businesses in Experian’s database and discover actionable insights that benefit our clients. Making these discoveries is rewarding work, and we utilize these insights to guide our recommendations. I thought I would share what I am watching through Experian’s bi-weekly Commercial Pulse Report (just bookmark the link; we will update it on a bi-weekly basis). What I am watching: The U.S. population and labor force are experiencing a major transformation Aging Baby Boomers are changing the U.S. labor market. The only age group whose labor force participation rate is projected to rise are people 75 and older. Birth rates declined 50% since 1950. The median employment age is expected to grow from 39.9 in 2002 to 42.8 years old in 2032. That’s a quick take – Download the latest report. Download Commercial Pulse Report

Experian is very pleased to announce the release of the Q1 2024 Main Street Report. Join us for a deep dive on Q1 performance Experian will share key findings from our Q1 Main Street Report in the Quarterly Business Credit Review: Tuesday, June 4th, 10:00 a.m. Pacific | 1:00 p.m. Eastern Register to attend Strength in the economy pushes through inflation The U.S. (United States) economy demonstrated resilience in the first quarter of 2024, driven by robust consumer spending and a solid labor market. Contrary to previous fears of a recession, consumer willingness to participate in markets has remained high as the confidence building favorable labor market conditions encourage an anxious consumer to keep spending. As we move into the second quarter of 2024, the economic landscape offers a diverse array of both opportunities and challenges for small businesses. Spending during the first quarter exceeded expectations, providing much-needed cash flow for small businesses. This influx of capital has enabled small firms to reduce debt and consider future growth and capital expenditures. Despite inflationary pressures and tighter lending conditions, the outlook remains cautiously optimistic. The Federal Reserve’s anticipated rate cuts, expected to begin late in 2024, could further stimulate economic activity and provide a boost to small businesses. Download your copy of the latest report for details. Download Q1 2024 report now