Experian’s Ascend Intelligence Services™ Wins 2021 Fintech Breakthrough Award

by Kim Le 4 min read June 25, 2021

Premier Awards Program Recognizes Breakthrough Financial Technology Products and Companies

Experian’s Ascend Intelligence Services was selected as a winner of the “Consumer Lending Innovation Award” category in the fifth annual Fintech Breakthrough Awards conducted by Fintech Breakthrough, an independent market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global fintech market today. The Fintech Breakthrough Awards is the premier awards program founded to recognize the fintech innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the world in a range of categories, including digital banking, personal finance, lending, payments, investments, RegTech, InsurTech and many more. The 2021 Fintech Breakthrough Awards attracted more than 3,850 nominations from across the globe.

One of the latest developments on Experian’s trusted, award-winning Ascend platform, Ascend Intelligence Services empowers financial services firms with Experian’s revolutionary managed analytics solutions and services, delivered on a modern-tech AI platform. Ascend Intelligence Services includes rapid model development, seamless deployment, optimized decision strategies, ongoing performance monitoring and continuous retraining. The technology-enabled service uses a secure cloud-based AI platform to harness the power of machine learning, and deliver unique capabilities covering the entire credit lifecycle, through an easy-to-use web portal.

“To stay ahead of the latest economic conditions, fintechs need high-quality analytical models running on large and varied data sets that empower them to act quickly and decisively. The breakthrough Ascend Intelligence Services platform answers this immediate market need,” said James Johnson, Managing Director, Fintech Breakthrough. “Congratulations to Experian and the Ascend team on winning our ‘Consumer Lending Innovation Award’ for 2021 with this game-changing solution.”

“Data scientists are spending too much time on manual, repetitive and low value-add tasks, and organizations cannot afford to do this is in a state of constant change,” said Srikanth Geedipalli, Experian’s SVP Global Analytics/AI Products. “While building and deploying high-quality analytical models can be time-consuming and expensive, Ascend Intelligence Services streamlines this process by harnessing the power of machine learning and Experian’s rich data assets to drive better, faster and smarter decisions. We have been able to deliver analytical solutions to clients up to 4X faster, significantly improving decision automation rates and increasing approval rates by double digits. We are proud that Ascend Intelligence Services is being recognized as a breakthrough solution in the 2021 Fintech Breakthrough Awards program,” he said.

Ascend Intelligence Services is comprised of four modules:

  1. Ascend Intelligence Services Challenger™ is a powerful, dynamic and collaborative model development service that enables Experian to rapidly build a model and quantify the benefit to business. Businesses can review, comment on and approve the model, all from within the web portal, while it’s being built. The resulting score is available for testing through an API endpoint and can be deployed in production with a few easy steps. Reports are customizable, downloadable and regulatory compliant.
  2. Ascend Intelligence Services Pulse™ is a proactive model monitoring and validation service, which aids companies in monitoring the health of models that drive their business decisions. Pulse, provides convenient dashboards that include a model health index, performance summary, stress-testing results, model risk management reporting, model health alerts and more. Additionally, Pulse automatically builds challengers for champion models, providing an estimated performance lift and financial benefit.
  3. Ascend Intelligence Services Strategy Advance™ is a powerful business strategy development service, enabling clients to make optimal lending decisions on their applicants. Strategy Advance uses Experian’s powerful optimization engine to build the right credit policy for clients, including sophisticated decision rules, model overlays and client specified knock-out rules. The resulting decision is available for testing through an API endpoint and can be deployed in production with a few easy steps.
  4. Ascend Intelligence Services Limit™ is a credit limit optimization service, enabling clients to make the right credit limit decisions at account origination and during account management. Limit uses Experian’s data, predictive risk and balance models and our powerful optimization engine to design the right credit limit strategy that maximizes product usage, while keeping losses low. The limit decision is available for testing through an API endpoint and can be deployed in production with a few easy steps.

To learn more about how Ascend Intelligence Services can support your business, please explore our solutions page.

Learn more

For a list of all award winners selected for the Fintech Breakthrough Awards, read the full press release here.

Related Posts

Used EV Growth Signals a New Phase of Consumer Purchasing Behavior

The electric vehicle (EV) revolution isn’t slowing down, it’s changing lanes. While recent conversations have seemingly focused on softening demand for new EVs, the used segment has been gaining momentum. According to Experian Automotive’s 2025 EV Year in Review Report, new retail individual EV registrations fell 35.9% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the used retail individual EV registrations grew 25.4% from a year ago. As affordability and growing model availability reshapes consumer behavior, buyers are increasingly turning to pre-owned EVs, which has shown an interesting market divergence that is redefining how consumers are adopting this segment and what it can mean for automakers, dealers, and the overall industry. Key players behind rising used EV demand Notably, Tesla accounted for over half (60.5%) of used retail individual EV registrations in 2025, followed by Chevrolet at 6.4% and Nissan (5.5%). Diving a bit deeper, Tesla made up the top three models of the used individual registrations last year, with the Model 3 coming in at 27.2%, Model Y at 21.7%, and Model S (6.6%). The Chevrolet Bolt EV followed at 4.8% and the Nissan Leaf was at 4%. Tesla’s position as the leading make in the used EV market is a natural extension of its long-standing dominance in new EV sales. The brand’s leadership over the years created a large fleet of vehicles that are now entering the pre-owned market. What the used EV boom means for automotive professionals The growing demand for used EVs can present more opportunities for automotive professionals. Dealers that provide a healthy supply of pre-owned EVs can increase accessibility and play a role in adoption for consumers who are actively looking to purchase, while marketers can emphasize value and ownership benefits. As the market continues to evolve, automotive professionals who understand and respond to these changing dynamics will be best positioned to capitalize on the expanding pool of used EV shoppers. To learn more about EV insights, visit Experian Automotive’s EV Resource Center.

Published: June 30, 2026 by Kirsten Von Busch
How Terrace Finance Uses NeuroID to Respond to Fraud Faster and Smarter

Learn how Terrace Finance used NeuroID behavioral analytics to detect fraud faster, respond to attacks, and strengthen risk management.

Published: June 29, 2026 by Scarlet.Nickel@experian.com
Ask the Expert: A Closer Look at Modern Lending with Jeff Hops and Erin Haselkorn

In this first episode of Ask the Expert, Experian's Jeff Hops, Senior Director of Data Platform and Product, and Erin Haselkorn, Senior Director of Analyst Relations, explore how broader data and new signals can help lenders better understand today’s consumers, while maintaining responsible decisioning. Lending is changing  Interest rates, regulation, embedded finance and AI are reshaping the lending landscape. Consumer behavior is evolving just as quickly. But the core job hasn’t changed. Lenders are still making decisions about people they don’t fully know, and that makes data more important than ever. "There are periods where nothing changes, and periods where it seems like everything changes. We’re in the latter … but the core premise hasn’t changed. You’re still trying to lend to somebody you don’t know."Jeff Hops, Senior Director of Data Platform and Product To make those decisions with confidence, lenders need a strong foundation of identity, history and reliable signals. In a period of rapid change, the quality and completeness of that data become even more critical. A more complex view of today’s consumer What has changed is the consumer. Traditional credit data is foundational but can be further enhanced with visibility on how people earn, manage and move money. Income may come from multiple sources, and financial activity often spans bank accounts, applications (apps) and digital channels. Cash flow data, for example, can provide a clearer view of what’s actually coming into a consumer’s account, beyond what traditional records may show.These additional signals can help lenders better understand: Income variability across multiple earning sources Current financial behavior through cash flow activity Digital and identity-linked activity across channels These signals don’t replace traditional data; they expand it. The result is a more complete and current view of the consumer. From exploration to real-world application The conversation around broader data signals has moved beyond theory. Lenders are no longer just asking whether these signals are useful. They’re asking where, how and under what governance they can be applied across the lending lifecycle. Lenders are actively researching, testing and implementing new data sources across the lending lifecycle. What was once experimental is now operational. Institutions are progressing through a clear path: Research Understanding available signals and use cases Testing Evaluating performance in controlled environments Implementation Applying insights in production Today, alternative data is being used in areas like analytics, channel scoring and decisioning, often within governed environments that allow for safe testing and validation. AI may accelerate this shift by helping institutions identify patterns at scale, but its value depends on the strength of the underlying data: quality, governance, context and clear business use cases. More signal, more responsibility As data availability expands, lenders have access to more granular insights than ever before. That creates opportunity, but also responsibility. The institutions that lead won’t be the ones that use the most data. They’ll be the ones that know which signals to use, how to validate them and how to apply them in ways that are fair, explainable and aligned to consumer outcomes. “Institutions can unlock more granular and powerful decisions, but they have to do it responsibly.”Erin Haselkorn, Senior Director, Analyst Relations The future of lending will be shaped not just by how much data is available, but by how thoughtfully it’s applied. Keeping the consumer at the center of decisioning is essential to building trust and long-term success. Explore alternative data with us A more complete understanding of today’s consumers starts with better data. We help lenders responsibly incorporate broader data signals and advanced analytics into decisioning strategies, enhancing visibility into today’s consumers while strengthening risk assessment and expanding access to credit. Let’s work together to build more confident, more responsible lending decisions. Learn more Contact us About our experts Jeff Hops Senior Director, Data Platform and Product, Experian Jeff Hops is a Senior Director in Experian’s Financial Services and Data business with over eight years of experience driving innovation in credit and data solutions. He has led product development for Experian’s Credit Report and played a key role in launching Ascend Identity Platform™, a leading identity resolution platform. Erin Haselkorn Senior Director, Analyst Relations, Experian Erin Haselkorn is responsible for analyst relations for Experian. She has developed an understanding of key marketing trends across a broad range of verticals. Her market research around data strategy, AI, fraud, identity and data management, paired with her broad Experian product knowledge, gives her a unique understanding of business automation and data trends. Erin is a frequent spokesperson and guest blogger.

Published: June 22, 2026 by Julie.JLee@experian.com