Experian publishes five global business trends that will help senior executives protect their growth ambitions against rising fraud threats

New industry report highlights the convergence of business growth and fraud prevention strategies

Experian has published its first annual global fraud report covering the convergence of growth strategies and fraud prevention. The report, Global Business Trends: Protecting Growth Ambitions Against Rising Fraud Threats, is designed as a guide for senior executives and fraud prevention professionals, offering new insights on how the alignment of strategies for business growth and fraud prevention can help a business grow revenues while managing risks in an increasingly virtual world.

The report identifies five trends that businesses should assess and take action on to mitigate fraud and improve the customer experience in today’s fast-paced, consumer-centric environment:

1. Applying right-sized fraud solutions to reduce unnecessary customer disruption: It’s time to move on from a one-size-fits-all approach that creates more customer friction than necessary. Instead, companies should apply fraud solutions that reflect the value and level of confidence needed for each transaction. This means right-sizing your fraud solutions to align with true fraud rates and commercial strategy.
2. Having a universal view of the consumer is the core of modern fraud mitigation and marketing: Achieving a universal profile of consumer behavior — beyond the traditional 360-degree view — requires access to a combination of identity data, device intelligence, online behavior, biometrics, historical transactions and more, for consumer interactions not only with you, but across other businesses and industries as well. Companies that translate this knowledge and use it to identify consumers can distinguish a fraudster from a real customer more easily, building trust along the way.
3. Expanding your view through a blended ecosystem: In addition to using your own first-party data sources, companies need to participate in a blended ecosystem, working across businesses and even industries. Fraudsters have access to more data than ever before, including data traditionally used to verify identities, and they use that data to create an entire digital profile. Therefore, you can no longer get to the digital interaction data you need by managing the process in a siloed manner. Achieving an expansive view of the universal consumer requires multiple data sources working together.
4. Achieving agility and scale using service-based models: Today, more and more companies are choosing subscription-based systems rather than building in-house or implementing on-premise solutions. Continuous upgrades and the access to new risk logic that come with subscription models provide more agility and faster response to emerging threats, no matter how fast your volume grows or what products, channels or geographies you pursue.
5. Future-proofing fraud solution choices: Companies need access to a wide variety of traditional and emerging technologies and information sources to fill in knowledge gaps and blind spots where fraudsters try to hide. The ability to modify strategies quickly and catch fraud faster while improving the customer experience is a critical aspect of fraud prevention moving forward.

Bringing together these key trends, the report provides business leaders with the insight they need to fight fraud using the same consumer-focused approach currently being used to attract new customers and grow revenue.

“There is a persistent mindset that fraud loss is just the cost of doing business,” said Steve Platt, global EVP, Fraud and Identity, Experian. “But as fraudsters evolve, those losses are climbing, and the status quo is no longer effective or acceptable. We all need to be as forward-looking in fighting fraud as we are in business operations and marketing, and a real understanding of consumers is critical for success. We’re talking about the convergence of business growth and fraud prevention, and we’re pleased to provide the first report in the marketplace covering this topic.”

Download the full report here. The report also features an interactive Fraud Prevention Benchmark tool that companies can use to explore how these trends impact their business and how the performance of their approach measures up against industry practices.

The report is relevant to functions spanning the enterprise, including C-suite executives such as chief marketing officers (CMOs), chief risk officers (CROs) and chief data officers (CDOs). The report focuses on business processes where fraud infiltrates, including new account opening, account access, money movement transactions, and emerging trends combating fraud, such as advanced fraud analytics. In each area, the report details how multiple business functions can apply responses to create business growth.

Steve Platt added: “We hear from our clients that they are most successful when CMOs along with CDOs and CROs all work together to understand the customer and develop fraud management solutions that create a better overall experience.”

Experian was recently cited in Forrester’s 2016 Vendor Landscape: Mobile Fraud Management Solutions¹ report and listed as having nine out of a possible 10 capabilities needed to combat mobile fraud. Experian was also identified as one of three leading players in the fraud detection and prevention space in a new study from Juniper Research.² Experian applied best practices to create a global report on providing fraud management solutions that allow companies to maximize profitability while providing secure, hassle-free customer interactions.

Learn more about Experian’s Fraud and Identity business.

¹Vendor Landscape: Mobile Fraud Management Solutions, Forrester Research, Inc., June 2016.
²Online Payment Fraud: Key Vertical Strategies & Management 2016–2020, Juniper Research, June 2016.