SINGAPORE, May 26, 2020 – Experian, the world’s leading global information services company, has developed multiple resources and services to help businesses and consumers across Asia Pacific during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ben Elliott, CEO, Experian Asia Pacific, says: “Experian is committed to helping businesses and consumers across the region. We’re responding to our customers’ immediate needs, such as banks and financial services providers needing to handle a surge in customer demand. The increase in digital activity during the pandemic has also led to a potential rise in fraud and businesses need to respond swiftly. Experian is providing complimentary resources for consumers to monitor and protect their financial health. Our initiatives enable businesses and consumers to build resilience and ensure continuity during these challenging times.”
How Experian is supporting businesses in Asia Pacific:
Next Level of Customer Experience
Data from GlobalWebIndex shows big jumps in digital activity, particularly in countries that have seen the strictest COVID-19 lockdowns including Singapore and India. Businesses are under increasing pressure to move to digital channels to source for customers and manage them, given current social distancing mandates. As this trend is likely to continue, Experian is providing businesses with support via cloud-based and on-premise solutions.
Additionally, fraud typically increases during economic downturns. The increase in digital processes leads to a higher chance of third-party fraud, specifically account takeover. In particular, the less tech-savvy group will be vulnerable to phishing attacks.
Experian, which partners with banks and financial services providers worldwide, is providing targeted solutions to differentiate legitimate consumers from fraudsters. A new version of CrossCore, an integrated digital identity and fraud risk platform, has been launched by Experian to enable businesses to respond swiftly to emerging fraud threats.
Digital Hardship Management
Banks and financial services providers face a surge in customer demand during economic downturns and will need to handle this in a customer-friendly and cost-efficient manner. In Singapore, DBS alone received over 8,000 requests for mortgage relief in Singapore and moratoriums on almost $1.6 billion of SME loans. As small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are likely to face challenges during an economic slowdown, their consumer and SME profiles will change quickly as they borrow more to bridge income gaps.
Banks and financial institutions need to continue supporting consumers and this requires debt management processes to be consumer-friendly, whilst ensuring that budgets and resources are managed. Banks will need a collection system that actively manages consumer collection strategies, and they will need to invest in their collections processes particularly in the current climate.
Experian offers cutting edge tools and capabilities globally to enable banks to decide on the best strategy and action to engage with their consumers. This includes the analytical capability to model consumer actions based on additional information and software solutions, so banks can implement these strategies both on-site and in a cloud environment.
Customer Management in Economic Downturn
With potential job losses and businesses at risk during the pandemic, customer profiles will change rapidly and banks need to manage their existing customers as a top priority. The ongoing economic uncertainties present a risk to lenders as even the smallest change to an individual’s income could dramatically affect their solvency. Banks need to identify, monitor and predict changes in customer profiles to assess vulnerable populations. Experian is partnering with banks to help with customer engagement and retention, whilst ensuring resources and budgets are kept in check.
Risk Calibration & Forecasting
The constantly evolving situation means that organisations need to mitigate credit risk and evaluate capital and liquidity. Experian is assisting banks in understanding how their stress scenarios were calculated in the past to prepare for the future – monitoring and benchmarking to quantify the effects of consumer distress and low interest rates. This will enable banks to redevelop and adjust current models to account for customer profile changes, so they can calibrate risk.
Other ways Experian has been helping consumers and businesses in Asia Pacific:
- Singapore: In line with Infocomm Media Development Authority’s ‘Stay Healthy, Go Digital’ campaign calling on businesses to embrace digitalisation and be ready to address business continuity challenges, Experian is providing complimentary credit monitoring services for 500 businesses until 15 July.
- Malaysia: Experian offered a free three-month credit health monitoring service for consumers through the JagaMyID service provided by Experian Credit Services. Consumers were able to access refreshed credit scores, update personal credit profiles, and review their Central Credit Reference Information System information. They could also obtain information pertaining to legal suits, bankruptcy actions and payment default by non-bank creditors. Experian offered small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and companies a free two-month subscription to CrediTrack+, which provides solutions for credit risk management, debt collection as well as digital customer relationship management.
- Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka: Experian is working with existing telco partners across Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to help subscribers stay connected. The telcos are providing subscribers with temporary increased credit limits, reduced fees and relaxing the eligibility criteria to allow more subscribers to have airtime advance. Close to 130,000 subscribers have benefited from reduced fees.
- India: The Reserve Bank of India announced a moratorium to all borrowers on repayment of all term loans, including credit card dues, from March till May 2020. Experian India is helping consumers manage their financial anxiety by offering free credit reports on its website.
For more information, materials and helpful articles the Experian team has developed to help organisations navigate the impact of COVID-19, please visit our Navigating the COVID-19 impact webpage.
About Experian
Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. During life’s big moments — from buying a home or a car to sending a child to college to growing a business by connecting with new customers — we empower consumers and our clients to manage their data with confidence. We help individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly, and organizations to prevent identity fraud and crime.
We have 17,200 people operating across 44 countries, and every day we’re investing in new technologies, talented people and innovation to help all our clients maximize every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Learn more at www.experian.com.sg or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group.