How we respond

We help consumers understand and improve their credit scores, and protect themselves against fraud through our core products, our social innovation products and our community investment programmes. We provide regular financial education and guidance through social media channels, and hold live video events with industry experts.

We also raise awareness of relevant issues through our marketing campaigns and media articles. Our colleagues volunteer their time as Education Ambassadors to share knowledge through community programmes, client events and other consumer interactions. We listen and respond to consumer feedback on our products and services.

As trusted custodians of data for millions of consumers, we have a responsibility to keep consumer data safe. We adopt rigorous polices and due diligence to ensure the security, privacy and accuracy of consumer data, and we strive to be transparent with consumers about the data we hold.

How we add value

We help millions of consumers take control of their finances and protect their identity. Our credit-monitoring services help consumers understand their credit status and their ability to access credit during key life events. Our marketplaces help consumers take control of their finances by finding credit and insurance offers that will help them save money. Our debt resolution services help consumers negotiate with lenders to secure more-affordable terms.

How we respond

We monitor our clients’ expectations through customer-experience programmes, and we use their feedback to help us improve their experience with Experian. We collaborate with clients on solutions to their key challenges at our four DataLabs around the world, and we provide regular opportunities for clients to explore how data and technology can help them address market trends. We use our Athena innovation-management system to innovate on emerging customer requirements.

How we add value

We help thousands of businesses use data more effectively – enabling them to make faster and smarter decisions so they can deliver more efficient and frictionless services to their customers. We help them by turning data from many sources into useful information.

We create powerful analytics and software, so they can make more-informed lending decisions and protect themselves from fraud. Every year, our data supports billions of credit decisions, facilitating billions of loans and microloans for their customers, while preventing billions in fraud.

How we respond

Community investment has always been central to our corporate responsibility programme, with a strong focus on initiatives that support financial education and management. Our employees get involved through volunteering, and we offer technical support for charities.

By working with NGO partners and through our United for Financial Health programme, we connect with people across diverse communities. This programme enables us to direct our investment more effectively across communities.

Many of our core products (e.g. Experian Boost and Experian Go) and social innovation products (e.g. Limpa Nome) help improve financial lives, including for vulnerable members of society.

How we add value

Central to our purpose is helping people access credit and other financial services that they can use to take control of their financial circumstances and improve their lives. We also support local economies through employment and paying taxes. By helping businesses prosper, we enhance their potential as local employers.

How we respond

We have a ‘people first’ culture. We listen to our people’s views and value their feedback. In response to our regular engagement surveys (Pulse and Great Place to Work (GPTW)), we share practical suggestions through our enterprise-wide communication platform, Horizon. The platform enables employees to post comments on all articles and the authors of the articles respond to the comments in a timely manner. Our CEO, CFO and COO host quarterly global meetings alongside our results sessions where all colleagues are invited to ask questions on any topic related to the business.

How we add value

Our work carries great responsibility, and how we work is as important as what we do. We support a positive, collaborative, diverse, equitable and inclusive culture and do all we can to make Experian a great place to work, where every person can bring their whole selves to work. We celebrate great performance and offer employees support to learn new skills and progress their careers, giving them a sense of purpose – an integral part of our organisational culture that has a positive impact globally.

How we respond

We create close and collaborative relationships with key suppliers to ensure streamlined processes, performance, segmentation and qualification. This helps us uncover and realise new value, increase savings and reduce costs and risk of failure.

We have a specific supplier-facing website to help suppliers understand our expectations and ethical requirements, and we conduct due diligence to ensure compliance with critical issues such as data security, modern slavery and environmental performance. Forging close relationships also helps us ensure we meet our compliance obligations.

How we add value

Many of our data contributors are also our clients. They often supply us with data through a give-to-get model. Our ability to combine, clean, sort and aggregate data from thousands of data contributors creates a more complete picture of consumer or business interactions across markets.

How we respond

We monitor regulations and put in place policies and processes to ensure compliance. Board and Audit Committee reporting includes legislative and regulatory matters as well as relevant government affairs matters. We take part in events to communicate the role we play in supporting an innovative, regulated data industry. We engage with policy-makers to inform the development of appropriate legislation, and participate in multi-stakeholder engagement for policy consultation and to provide policy-makers with a better understanding of our industry, data processing and innovative data use. We also engage with various organisations to address societal challenges.

How we add value

We enable the transparent flow of data that is essential to the functioning of modern economies and the financial ecosystem. High-quality data reduces the risk to lenders of extending credit, ensures fair and responsible lending, increases confidence to lend, as well as the ability to assess affordability and meet compliance obligations. This benefits the wider economy by improving access to credit, improving market competition, increasing credit diversification and reducing the cost of credit.

How we respond

We build relationships with our shareholders through our investor relations programme. During our quarterly live financial updates, we inform analysts, investors and other interested parties about Experian’s financial and strategic progress. Investors are able to ask questions during these sessions and can also access all results-related information, including transcripts, on our website. We hold face-to-face meetings and run teach-ins to educate them about our business and ESG commitments. The Chair of the Board meets our largest shareholders to discuss developments in ESG and other material issues. We regularly collect investor feedback and share this with management and the Board to ensure our shareholders' views are well understood. We’ve used feedback from investor meetings to improve our communication with shareholders as well as our ESG reporting.

How we add value

We aim to create long-term shareholder value through organic and inorganic investments to grow our position in our chosen markets, balanced with shareholder returns, dividend payments and share repurchase programmes when appropriate – all while ensuring we meet our wider sustainability commitments.