Ask the Expert: The Future of Lending Starts With Identity With Shawn Rife and Brian Cardona

More data doesn’t always mean more confidence

Financial institutions have access to enormous amounts of consumer data. But as that information grows, an important challenge remains: determining which signals matter.

Consumers change jobs, adopt new email addresses and establish new digital behaviors. Information that was accurate when it was captured may not provide the same picture months or years later. For lenders, that creates a fundamental question: How can they understand what has changed and use that insight to make better decisions?

In this Ask the Expert, Shawn Rife, Alternative Data and Partner Sales Executive at Experian, and Brian Cardona, Senior Vice President of AtData, an Experian company, explore how alternative data and email intelligence can help lenders better understand consumers, identify opportunities and make more confident decisions.

Better signals can expand opportunity

Change in consumer information isn’t necessarily a negative signal. It can also provide useful context.

A new email address may reflect a life event. Changes in activity may indicate that someone is in the market for a product. Other behaviors may signal a potential shift in risk. The value comes from understanding those changes in context rather than treating an individual data point as the answer.

Better visibility can also help lenders identify consumers who may otherwise be difficult to evaluate. Before consumers can be evaluated for financial products, they first need to be accurately identified and brought into the decision funnel. Email and other alternative data can add context to established credit approaches and help lenders better understand consumers who may not be fully represented through traditional credit information.

For lenders, that can help address both sides of the equation — creating opportunities for more consumers to be seen while providing additional information to support confident decisioning.

In the full conversation, Shawn and Brian explore how lenders can distinguish meaningful changes from noise and use evolving identity signals to better understand opportunity and risk.

Four questions that turn identity into action

Four questions can help lenders connect identity intelligence to action:

Email intelligence can provide additional context for answering these questions. Signals such as whether an email address has previously been associated with a consumer and how frequently and recently that association has appeared can contribute to a more informed view of identity.

The objective isn’t simply to add another data point. It’s to establish greater confidence that an organization understands the consumer behind the information.

Identity intelligence across the customer lifecycle

Identity intelligence can play a role well beyond the initial application. From prospecting and prescreen to account management and collections, lenders benefit from understanding who they are engaging and having current information about how to reach them.

For example, email can complement direct mail in prescreen campaigns, providing another way to reach eligible consumers. Later in the relationship, current identity and contact information can help organizations engage consumers and determine the appropriate next action.

That makes identity less of a one-time consideration and more of a capability that can provide valuable context throughout the customer lifecycle.

The next identity question: Agentic AI

As AI agents increasingly act on behalf of consumers, identity could become even more complex. What happens when an AI agent creates or uses an email address for an individual? And how should an organization determine who, or what, is behind an interaction?

These questions are already emerging in areas such as AI agent identity verification. In the full conversation, Shawn and Brian explore what agentic AI could mean for identity intelligence and how lenders think about the signals behind digital interactions.

Build greater decision confidence with us

The opportunity isn’t to accumulate more data. It’s to understand which signals matter, recognize when something has changed and use that context to make a more confident decision.

Experian helps lenders bring identity intelligence and broader consumer insights into decisioning strategies to better identify consumers, understand authenticity and make informed decisions across the customer lifecycle.

About our experts

Shawn Rife

Alternative Data and Partner Sales Executive, Experian

Shawn Rife leads alternative data strategy for Experian’s community lending business, helping financial institutions leverage new data assets to accelerate portfolio growth, manage risk and create more first and second chances for consumers. Throughout more than two decades at Experian, he has worked across analytics, product and go-to-market functions and was one of the co-creators of Experian Lift™. Shawn collaborates with strategic partners to identify, evaluate and integrate innovative data assets that strengthen Experian’s ability to deliver value for clients and their consumers.

Brian Cardona

Senior Vice President, AtData, an Experian company

Brian Cardona has been a data and identity expert for more than 20 years, with deep expertise in email data specifically. Today, he helps Fortune 1000 companies apply email intelligence and identity technology to maximize revenue, reduce fraud and risk exposure, and improve the depth and accuracy of their marketing and identity databases. Joining AtData in 2005, Brian rose from VP Business Development to the role of President where he helped lead the company for more than 10 years until its merger with FreshAddress to become AtData, which was acquired by Experian in 2026.