Serasa today launches a new service that allows Brazilian consumers to check their credit reports online for free. By visiting serasaconsumidor.com.br or by downloading the SerasaConsumidor App on Google Play or iTunes, consumers can check if they are delinquent, what led them to this status and whether it relates to bank, credit card, financial, retail, utilities, protested securities, checks without funds or lawsuits checks. Consumers will also have information about lenders, such as telephones, address, email and website as well as the value of the debt and repayment date for the delayed debt. Additionally, the consumer can renegotiate the debt directly, without intermediaries, if the company is a partner of Serasa’s free service Limpa Nome Online. People can make a free online inquiry as often as they would like. To participate in the free online program, consumers must access serasaconsumidor.com.br and fill out a registration or enter an email address and password if already registered. The service is also available on mobile Apps Android and iOS. To properly verify the user accessing the information in Serasa, after the registration, the consumer must go through an authentication process. One of the steps is to enter the mobile number and confirm the validation code received via SMS. This validation is required only on the first access. For the director of SerasaConsumidor, Fernanda Monnerat, this new service presents the opportunity for consumers to easily and safely check the existence debts in a single digital environment. "It's another tool that we provide to Brazilians so they can have access to services that make possible, above all, their financial citizenship and ability to build a more sustainable relationship with the credit. Therefore, we reaffirm once again the commitment of Serasa with the consumer,” said Monnerat. Among other free services available on the SerasaConsumidor website, consumers can opt-in to the positive data initiative, which gathers information on the consumer’s payment history, measures their payment timeliness of debts and evaluates the risk of debt distress. Through the program, it is also possible to make a document alert and stolen checks alert. Free registration in Serasa helps to reduce risk of fraud and to avoid the challenges of having personal information used by scammers. Also on the website, users will find guidelines and tests on financial education on the newly launched page www.serasaconsumidor.com.br/organizar-financas.

  Who doesn’t love a new car? That new car smell, the excitement of seeing less than 8 miles on the odometer, or the invigorating rush you feel when driving your new baby off the lot. There is nothing like it! Well, according to a recent study we did here at Experian, it’s not just speculation, but completely true – folks like new cars! In fact, according to the latest Automotive Market Share Trends and Registrations analysis the number of new vehicle registrations in Q1 2016 reached a record high, climbing 7.5 percent from Q1 2015 and up 86.9 percent since the lowest point following the Great Recession in 2009. The analysis also showed that the top vehicle segments for these new registrations were the entry level CUV (15.09 percent), Full-sized pickup (11.35 percent), small economy car (9.86 percent, and the mid-range car standard (9.48 percent). The top vehicle models that consumers chose and registered in Q1 2016 were the Ford F150, Honda Civic, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Honda Accord and the Honda CR-V. Other areas covered in the analysis include: Vehicles in operation statistics Top registered manufacturers, makes and models Average vehicle age information Luxury segment market share Insights into the medium/heavy vehicle market Automotive aftermarket trends If you’d like to see the full report with additional information regarding this analysis, please view the webinar by clicking here.

The Fourth of July is a special day to celebrate our independence and to show off American pride with parades, fireworks and barbecues spent with friends and family. In the spirit of this season, Experian Automotive recently conducted some research that looked at the vehicles on U.S. roads to see how many were manufactured in America or that were “Born in the USA.” According to our latest research, there are roughly 260 million light-duty vehicles on the road, with nearly 60 percent of them having been assembled domestically. The rest were built in Canada, Japan, Mexico, Germany, South Korea and others countries. From a manufacturer standpoint, it is not surprising that Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had the highest percentage of U.S.-made vehicles currently on the road at 81.2 percent, 70.1 percent and 63.1 percent, respectively. However, Honda (61.9 percent) and Nissan (54.7 percent) also made the top five. In fact, many of the top import manufacturers hover around the 50 percent mark, including Mitsubishi (49.9 percent), Toyota (48.2 percent) and Subaru (47 percent) assembling vehicles in the USA. When looking at vehicle brands, the findings show that, overall, Jeep is the most American with 96.7 percent of its vehicles assembled in the USA. Rounding out the top five were Oldsmobile, Saturn, Ford and Cadillac, with 93.3 percent, 92.4 percent, 83.1 percent and 80.6 percent, respectively. In addition, nearly 93 percent of Ford F150s, the most popular model on the road, were built domestically. The remainder of the top five vehicle models assembled domestically are Honda Accord (88.3 percent), Toyota Camry (86.9 percent), Nissan Altima (100 percent) and Ford Explorer (100 percent). The analysis also looked at domestically assembled models that were most often financed with a loan rather than with a lease or paid for with cash. At the top of the list, the Ford F-150 was the most popular vehicle that was financed with a loan with 69.9 percent, followed by Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Ford Explorer. For more information about this analysis or Experian Automotive insights, visit https://www.experian.com/automotive.

Independent research firm cites Experian as having the most capabilities and one of the highest estimated revenues in total fraud management Experian announced today that we were included in Forrester’s 2016 “Vendor Landscape: Mobile Fraud Management Solutions[1]” report. The full press release is available on our Insights blog. Experian was listed as having nine out of a possible 10 capabilities needed to combat mobile fraud. In addition, Experian was cited as having one of the highest total fraud management revenues in 2015, between $200 million and $250 million. Only one other vendor in the report was cited with revenue over $200 million. Through what we consider to be this significant market presence, Experian provides fraud management solutions to some of the world’s largest brands in financial services, insurance, and retail. “We believe the findings in this report further validate the power of Experian’s fraud management solutions,” said Steve Platt, global executive vice president, Fraud and Identity, Experian. “There is incredible innovation taking place in mobile today and our clients need to be able to keep up with the pace of change, while also providing reliable protection. We feel this report is a noteworthy validation of our commitment to building a safer environment for consumers across the globe while ensuring a positive customer experience.” A complimentary copy of the June 2016 Forrester report by analyst Andras Cser is now available here. [1] Vendor Landscape: Mobile Fraud Management Solutions, Forrester Research, Inc., June 2016

Industry’s first smart plug-and-play fraud platform allows companies to connect their own solutions, Experian products and third-party vendors in one place to better protect their customers from fraud threats Experian unveiled the fraud and identity industry’s first open platform designed to catch fraud faster, improve compliance and enhance the customer experience. Fraud attacks change at such a fast pace that right now it’s a challenge for clients to manage all the tools they need to keep up. Experian’s CrossCore™ lets them plug all their fraud and ID services into a single platform, easily adding new ones, from Experian and others, when needed. This means they can make decisions – with more confidence – more quickly, making life easier for their customers. “Our clients have expressed frustration over the lack of a truly holistic industry solution that delivers the level of confidence and control they need without requiring a massive multiyear project to replace everything they have,” said Steve Platt, global executive vice president, Fraud and Identity, Experian. “New fraud threats, updates to regulatory requirements and customer expectations for a hassle-free experience are making it challenging for fraud and compliance teams to keep up. CrossCore will give them the flexibility they need to balance customer protection with customer experience.” Please read the full release here and learn more about CrossCore capabilities.

Small businesses serve as the engine of job creation for local communities, as well as the central hub for most innovation. So, it stands to reason that the financial health and growth of small businesses are of the upmost importance to all parties involved. Fortunately for the economy, the financial health of small businesses has remained relatively unchanged from a year ago – which is a good sign. In fact, according to the first quarter 2016 Experian/Moody’s Analytics Main Street Report, delinquency and bankruptcy rates have held steady at rather low levels. And we’re seeing fewer small businesses fall within the 61 to 90 and 91+ days past due categories. Additionally, while small businesses have continued to pay their bills in a timely manner, we’re also seeing them expand their credit lines and keeping utilization rates down. This is a pleasant sign, as it means small businesses have the ability to access financial resources if necessary. However, while the credit conditions for small businesses have remained stable, there are potential headwinds that could impact the sector. For instance, findings from the report show as oil prices have gone down, so too has the price on agricultural commodities. If both continue to remain low, there could be potential increases in delinquency rates for the oil and agricultural industries, which could spread into other small business areas. While the financial health of small businesses remains positive, it will be important for credit grantors and small business owners, to keep an eye on the potential challenges that they could encounter in the near term. Gaining insight into the fluctuations of the market can not only help them adapt to these challenges, but also better position small businesses to grow and succeed. In-depth insight and commentary from the Experian/Moody’s Analytics Main Street Report will be presented in a Webinar at 10 a.m. Pacific time/1 p.m. Eastern time on June 28. If you would like to register for the event, visit http://bit.ly/1s6vlmG.

In this eCampusNews article by Eric Haller, Executive Vice President of Experian’s DataLabs, he discusses how the rising cost of college tuition against the backdrop of a challenging job market brings new meaning to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Once a question of endearment for the young and imaginative, today’s students focus on what will pay the bills; what career will provide the means to pay back loans; what is the next profession to boom. The medical and law professions used to top the list. Now, a new player is ready to take the top spot: data scientists. http://www.ecampusnews.com/curriculum/data-science-hot/

Experian, the global information services company, has identified five key factors currently making people and organisations more vulnerable to large-scale cyber fraud. Speaking at the renowned Merchant Risk Council EU Congress on May 19th in Seville, Spain, Experian’s Global Identity and Fraud Director, Hugh Steed, shared his insights with nearly 500 eCommerce fraud and payments professionals. A wealth of stolen data available to fraudsters. Wholesale data theft is one of the fastest growing crimes facing people and organisations today, with hundreds of millions of digital identities compromised every year. Fraudsters are increasingly targeting on-line credentials over previously preferred data, such as credit cards. The exponential growth of malware. After data breaches, malware is the criminal’s key method of obtaining digital identities. From mobile applications to traditional desktop platforms, malware manifests itself in many different forms and its volume is ever increasing. Fraudsters are targeting both end users and enterprises to acquire these valuable credentials for use in sophisticated frauds. The frequent username and password reuse by consumers. Experian’s research revealed that the majority of internet users consistently use a small set of usernames and passwords to secure multiple different accounts; including social media, email and online shopping sites. More specifically, people have on average up to 26 online accounts protected by only five different passwords. This greatly increases the risk that fraudsters can use data stolen from one source to successfully access other accounts held by the same user. An increase of multi-channel interaction between customers and business. People now have access to multiple digital and physical channels, enabling them to interact with businesses, manage accounts and make transactions. However, this diverse channel environment also facilitates the work of cyber criminals as each open channel is an opportunity to commit fraud and securing these channels is a significant challenge for enterprises. The trade-off between security and user experience. As companies consider the necessary steps required to increase online account security, they are conscious that they cannot risk adversely affecting the customer experience. Customers making transactions online today expect a seamless journey and are likely to be put off by onerous visible security procedures. Hugh commented: "Experian’s research shows that fraud today is often a complex cycle that starts with data theft and proceeds through a set of discrete staging points, ending with a fraudulent transaction. “Rather than being instantaneous, the fraud process can span weeks or even months often with different criminal organisations involved and data changing hands. However, the very nature of this cycle means that there are systems that can be implemented to detect and stop such fraud early and before it causes losses that are significant in scale. To put things into context, for a handful of our largest customers alone, we have helped them detect and prevent fraud worth over $500 million dollars.” Felipe Fernandez-Atela, President of Experian in Spain, said: "Protecting people and businesses from the threat of fraud is one of our main goals. In fact, companies using our fraud prevention solutions consistently outperform the industry benchmarks in areas such as ‘decline rates’ and ‘fraud rate by order’ – both of which are typically 15 times below the industry average. We have the expertise, both in our products, services and skills of our people to help ensure society is more protected against this type of crime.”

The benefits of the Internet of Things are only as strong as the weakest connected point. Having a plan in place to prevent fraud that businesses and consumers can use to manage risk and increase security when using Internet-enabled products, also known as the Internet of Things (IoT), is critical. Connected devices such as smartphones and tablets, and a tremendous number of consumer products — including cars, heart monitors and household appliances — are now connected to the Internet. Many of these connected products have weak security and controls, creating points of weakness in users’ critical private networks, systems, and data. Adam Fingersh, senior vice president and general manager of Experian’s fraud and identity business, shared several fraud prevention strategies that businesses and consumers can use to manage risk and increase security while using Internet-enabled products, also known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Please read all the security tips on our Insights blog and learn more about Experian’s Fraud and Identity business.

Experian DataLabs in North America and Gimbal, Inc., a leading mobile engagement and location intelligence solution, are working together on breakthrough data and advanced analytics experiments. By leveraging Gimbal’s suite of macro-location geofencing and micro-location beacons, these findings could help retailers offer instant credit to customers as soon as they walk into a store, as well as give creditors the ability to prequalify their customers on demand for car and home purchases based on the location of their mobile devices. “In our lab, we are working on what the future could look like when consumers walk into a retail store, shop for a car or find their dream house,” said Eric Haller, executive vice president, Experian Global DataLabs. “This alliance with Gimbal is one example of how Experian is on the forefront of innovation and doing good things with data.” Experian’s new state-of-the-art DataLabs facility in San Diego, Calif., is outfitted with Gimbal industry-leading beacons to help Experian’s data scientists use breakthrough experiments to analyze data and deliver greater competitive advantages. “We are excited to work with a global data-driven company like Experian to utilize the rich location data our solution creates,” said Brian Dunphy, senior vice president of business development at Gimbal. “Further, it is great to be part of a collaboration effort that could enable Experian’s clients to offer mobile instant credit and prequalification to their customers once they’ve opted in, further helping to make their customers’ journey much simpler by leveraging their mobile devices and smart applications enabled by the Gimbal platform.” Experian DataLabs is staffed by teams of Ph.D. scientists and applied research practitioners with expertise in advanced analytics and modeling, as well as other statistical methods. The labs provide access to Experian resources such as broad, secure consumer and commercial credit data and demographics, which can guide Experian clients in determining their approach. Projects often tackle high-dimensionality problems where computer science, applied mathematics and business acumen intersect to create solutions that can be implemented cost-effectively. Experian DataLabs operates globally with labs in San Diego, Calif.; London, England; and São Paulo, Brazil. To find out more about Experian’s data innovations and the Experian DataLabs, please visit https://www.experian.com/big-data/datalabs.html.

Originally published in MarTech Advisor. As technology increases, today’s consumer continues to demand and expect better service. According to recent Experian data, the biggest challenge for businesses over the next 24 months is increasing customer expectation. It has become more important than ever for marketers to be smarter, more personable, and more relevant than ever before. In order to not get beat by competition, brands need to deliver a personalized and seamless Omnichannel experience. Data will play a critical role in informing decisions and ensuring the customer experience is maximized. This requires you to move from push marketing to insight-driven response and prediction. Insight like time of day, past purchases, weather, location, devices and more make it possible to provide exceptional value through every interaction. But before we can begin focusing on activation, we need to make sure to step back to basic fundamental thinking and think about our customer journey. Identifying Your Customers We have always put customers front and center. The old way to identify customers used to involve past-looking exercises meant to inform future large-scale marketing decisions. We would focus on our best customers and pinpoint key moments in their brand experiences that may need improvement or redesign. In today’s world of customer-centricity, we have to move past the idea of a random sample customer journey. Instead, be ready to react to each unique touch point in a way that adds value and encourages further brand interactions. Today’s version of the customer journey map should cover each individual’s path of touch points, make contextual decisions at each subsequent interaction, and develop and automate the process at scale. With this approach, the unique path each customer has taken up until this moment can inform the next message or offer we deliver at a 1:1 level.  This is where predictive analytics come into play. According to TDWI Research, the top five reasons why companies want to use predictive analytics are to predict trends, understand customers, improve business performance, drive strategic decision-making, and predict behavior. In order to truly identify each individual customer, a mix of transactional and behavioral data need to be incorporated into the predictive modeling. Linking Your Profiles Ninety-nine percent of companies believe achieving a single customer view is important to their business, but only 24 percent believe they have achieved it today. According to Experian Marketing Services’ 2015 Digital Marketer Report, the biggest barrier for marketers to achieve cross-channel success is data linkage. For instance, say you have a customer who does all their research online during the week and then over the weekend shops in a brick and motor store to actually make purchases. If brands aren’t identifying the customer as one profile, they are most likely spending too much energy and time on trying to get the digital profile to transact online. There are two ways to establish user identity across devices. The deterministic method relies on personally identifiable information (PII) to make devise matches when a person uses the same email address to log into an app and a website, thereby creating cross-device linkage. Probabilistic cross-device matching is achieved by algorithmically analyzing thousands of different anonymous data points including device type, operating system, location data associated with bid requests, time of day and a host of others to create statistical matches between devices. For example, if a phone, a tablet and a laptop connect to the same networks or Wi-Fi hotspots in the same places every weekday, it’s safe to surmise that all three devices belong to a specific commuter. And while deterministic matching seems like the better more exact solution, users don’t always stay logged in or use the same email address everywhere. That is why it is important to use a combination of these techniques and other supplemental data to ensure you have an accurate single-customer profile. Automating The Process Once we have achieved a clear vision of each customer, we can automate the whole process. The ability to deliver the right message to the right person at the right stage in his or her buying process has increased the speed to conversion. However, it is not as simple as set it and forget it. You need to constantly be adding great content and paying really close attention to what people are responding to. In addition, there is no substitution for a human component. Automation works most effectively when the right team is involved in processing and make sure that customers’ needs are actually being met. The customer journey is and has always been at the backbone of business success. Being able to identify what motivates a customer gives us the insight needed to make smart marketing and business decisions. Today’s technology gives us an easier and quicker means to that data, but it is how we use and manage that data to provide a memorable customer experience that really sets us apart. Marketers need to make sure that every touch is smarter, more personable, and relevant in order to excel and advance. Emad Georgy is the Senior VP of product development and product management at Experian Marketing Services.  Follow Emad at @EmadGeorgy, and Experian Marketing Services at @ExperianMkt, on Twitter.

National Small Business Week is finally upon us, and we are proud to recognize the businesses that have had such a profound impact on the country, as well as our local communities. They truly are the heartbeat of the U.S. economy. Experian will be celebrating this week by hosting several activities to help small businesses manage their financial well-being and make decisions that enable success moving forward. Below are some of this week’s activities, as well as some resources that are available to small businesses: OFFERS: During National Small Business Week, small business owners will be able to access a free copy of their business credit report. By monitoring their business credit, small business owners can avoid unpleasant surprises when applying for funding, protect their business from potential identity theft, correct inaccuracies and build their business credit score. EVENTS: Tuesday, May 3 1 p.m. eastern – Experian has teamed with BBVA Compass to present a free webinar that explores the power of building and maintaining business credit, as well as examines how to obtain the capital needed to start a business. Thursday, May 5 1 p.m. eastern – A video chat with Experian and several other small business experts will air to discuss how small business owners can better manage their financial well-being. Learn how small businesses can access financial capital. RESOURCES: We will also post a week-long blog series dedicated to helping small businesses manage and understand their financial situation. Visit http://info.inbound-bis.com/blog to see all the great tips. To get a copy of your business credit report and assistance in understanding the impact maintaining a positive credit profile can have on a small business. To understand how financial plans and changes to commercial credit information can impact a business credit score, visit http://sbcr.experian.com/scoreplanner. To better understand and learn the benefits managing your business credit, visit businesscreditfacts.com At Experian, we understand how vitally important small businesses are to our local communities. After all, they are a critical component of job growth and success to the economy. But we also understand there are a number of challenges small businesses experience along the way. This is why Experian is committed to ensuring entrepreneurs and small business owners have access to the right tools, resources and expert advice to help manage and grow their businesses.