Vodacom Service Provider (VSP), a leading southern African cellular service provider, has selected Experian Decision Analytics as its preferred supplier to deliver an application scorecard solution to enhance service provision to new customers.

The solution is designed to maximise the intelligence derived from all information available, to enable Vodacom to gain greater insight into its new customers, and deliver on its strategic driver of consumer-centricity. The application scorecard makes use of Experian credit bureau data and streamlined business rules to optimise the customer acquisition process to ensure that Vodacom offers the appropriate products to its customers.

Veran Kathan, managing executive with Vodacom Service Provider says, “The scorecard implementation forms part of our greater strategy to implement a world-class risk management process focused on providing the best possible customer experience while managing risk and optimising return for the business. We see our strategic partnership with Experian Decision Analytics as key to delivering on these objectives.”

Experian Decision Analytics offers specialist analytical expertise and a wealth of experience having developed and delivered analytical solutions across the globe for over three decades. Furthermore, Experian Decision Analytics has many years experience delivering best-of-breed solutions to major telecommunications companies around the world.

Trevor Labuschagne , director of account management with Experian South Africa says, “Vodacom Service Provider is leading the way in customer service and Experian is excited to be in partnership with them. We are also confident that Experian's best-of-breed solutions will continue to add value to the organisation's business strategy well into the future.”

Experian, a global information services company, today announced it has launched a new global image and identity for the company. This new brand positioning includes a new logo, tagline and advertising campaign that conveys Experian's dynamic growth, global reach and position as the global leader in providing information services.

"In the past five years, we have completely transformed the shape and growth profile of Experian," said Don Robert, chief executive officer of Experian Group. "We have expanded geographically and into new vertical markets, we've launched new innovative products in all businesses, and have made key strategic acquisitions that complement our core businesses and provide new avenues of growth. This new brand positioning reflects the changes we've introduced to the business and captures not only our dynamic growth and innovation, but also the global depth and breadth of our service offerings for clients."

Experian's new brand positioning establishes a global, sustainable and long-term platform that effectively conveys to all audiences the company's strategic direction.

"We conducted a comprehensive, far-reaching research study that guided us in creating our new image," said Kim Hosmer, senior vice president of Experian's Corporate Marketing group. "Our tagline, ‘A world of insight,' conveys the depth and breadth of Experian's capabilities to both prospective clients and to our 100,000 existing clients in more than 65 countries around the world."

	OTTO UK , part of the world's largest home shopping group, is to implement the Probe SM and Reporting Studio solutions from Experian to improve the financial performance of its customer relationships.

These solutions will enable OTTO UK, which encompasses the Freemans, Grattan, Montage, Oli and Look Again brands, to create and manage the company's customer strategies in the UK, enhance its customer service and improve its overall profitability.

The Probe SM solution from Experian Decision Analytics makes full use of customer data held by Otto UK in different account management systems to create an insight into the behaviour and motivations of each customer, and enable it to completely understand each and every individual's needs. This thorough understanding of customers is used to set consistent and relevant strategies across every element of customer management.

The integrated reporting and monitoring capabilities provided by the Portfolio Monitoring Studio solution maintains the results for operational reporting and strategic monitoring, supporting both day-to-day management control and longer-term business strategic development.

With the solution's sophisticated simulation capability, OTTO UK will be able to evaluate business scenarios to calculate the impact of potential changes in policies and terms, and assess the effectiveness of its customer strategies. This will help the company to quickly adapt its strategies when required, gaining the flexibility needed to operate in a highly dynamic environment.

Alan Milne, Credit Director, OTTO UK, commented: “ We will use data intelligence provided by Experian Decision Analytics to help us to determine the right product, terms and other customer service opportunities. Experian Decision Analytics is a proven provider of decisioning technology and Probe SM offers the flexibility we need to be really effective with our customer relationship management. With its simulation capabilities and Champion-Challenger facilities, we will be able to evaluate, evolve and prove our strategies for maximum performance. ”

Robert Clegg , Head of Financial Services, Experian Decision Analytics UK , said: “For us, working with OTTO UK presents a great opportunity, especially as this is a great challenge and we are sure that our flexible software and extensive expertise will enable us to create a fully customised solution with a rapid and streamlined delivery. As a result, Otto UK will soon maximise the benefits that can be gained in its operational, technical and business environments. ”

The solution further strengthens Experian's wider relationship with OTTO UK as a leading supplier of its credit services products. As well as being the primary supplier of credit bureau data, OTTO UK also utilise Experian's Delphi for Customer Management, which enables them to identify patterns and insights to help improve all elements of the customer relationship from billing to marketing, in order to drive profitability per customer.

Delphi for Customer Management (DCM) is a suite of highly predictive generic bureau-based behavioural scorecards that provides users with regularly updated information on all their existing customers. In addition to acquiring new customers, lenders also need to manage risk and optimise profitability within their existing customer base.

For organisations with their own behavioural credit scoring system, DCM can give an accurate risk assessment of activity outside their particular lending institution, thus providing a true 'customer view'. For those without, DCM provides a risk assessment measure that is predictive enough to be used as a stand-alone behavioural score in its own right.

DCM and the collection process

DCM can be utilised in the collection process as the DCM score takes into consideration consumer behaviour across all accounts and not just your company specific accounts. This means that the score can be utilised successfully to assist in your collection strategies, as you will have the ability to rank your collections accounts based on the probability of you making a successful collection on specific accounts.

Data requirements for DCM calibration of a collections portfolio

In order to complete the calibration exercise on your collections book, Experian will require a sample of accounts that went into early collections 6 months ago. (The early collections stage is defined as the delinquency cycle when the collections process is kicked off.)

To ensure that the most effective calibration of the DCM score to your data is delivered, it is important to also provide the subsequent 6 months arrears position as well as arrears value.

Calibration outcome

Once the DCM calibration has been performed on your collections portfolio Experian will be in a position to assist in identifying clients who:

•  Are likely to self-cure, in other words, they are still repaying all their other accounts and you could possibly choose to not take any action on them.

•  Are still paying some accounts and have a relatively high DCM score. You may choose to send a polite letter asking for payment.

•  Are still paying some accounts, but have a low DCM score. You may choose to give these clients a call, and demand payment.

•  Are not paying any accounts. These clients will most likely not have the means to ever repay you, and therefore you may choose to not waste any more money on collecting and write the debt off.

	Launched in Q3 2006, Edeus targets the specialist mortgage lending markets, particularly sub-prime, self-cert and buy-to-let, with a wholly business-to-business distribution strategy. As a start-up mortgage lender, edeus knew its business would be at risk from fraudsters.

Dealing with brokers, who understand the lending system, operating in a purely online environment and offering mortgages in the higher risk segments meant that Edeus recognised that it was potentially at a higher risk of fraud. New lenders are also targets for fraudsters ‘testing the system' and trying to find weaknesses as new lenders often have aggressive growth targets and less business experience of fraud prevention. However, Edeus made fraud prevention a priority and wanted to put in place a system before it started operation. It needed a rapid and automated fraud detection system, as it planned to offer instant offers and 24-hour remortgages. Manual processes needed to be minimised and streamlined to meet customer service expectations while reducing fraud losses.

Edeus recognised Hunter from Experian Decision Analytics as the market leader and it offered the right combination of technology and flexibility. When combined with the experience and expertise Experian could offer to set up the system and fraud management team, it was a clear choice for the lender. Hunter now sits at the heart of fraud management for Edeus and the benefits provided by Hunter to date include the detection of £35 million of potential fraud in 6 months, controlled operational costs by streamlining manual processes and the establishment of a strong reputation sending a clear message to potential fraudsters. A significant return on investment is being enjoyed in the first year as a result. Experian supports edeus on a daily basis and continues to work with the company to continually improve fraud detection accuracy.

CCA name change

The collation of statistics for micro lending institutions (those that disburse up to R10 000 for a period not exceeding 36 months) have been managed by the NCR over the past year. However, this is the final data release in respect of statistics relating to micro lending in terms of the Exemption Notice. In future these statistics will be incorporated into the general statistics that will be released on the broader consumer credit market in South Africa . The general statistics will be reported in terms of the National Credit Act (NCA) and Regulations and we expect the first set of statistics to be released in the first quarter of 2008.

Chart 2: Industry Gross Loan Book as at end of each quarter May 2004 to May 2007

Aggregate statistics for the quarter ending May 2007 from lenders registered under the Exemption Notice indicated a slow-down in the growth for micro-loans. This decline is seasonal in nature and is consistent with the pattern for the same period in the previous year. Quarterly disbursements, at R8.2 billion, were 7.2% down when compared to disbursements reported for the quarter ending February 2007.

For the twelve months ending May 2007, disbursements were R32 billion. This reflects a growth of 15.88% on the previous year when disbursements were R28.67 billion. The growth rate has slowed down significantly from the year on year rate of 19% reported at the end of February. The year-on-year growth reported for quarter ending November 2006 was 22%.

A comparison of statistics for the quarter ending May 2007 with those of February 2007 shows the following trends: -

• Rand value disbursements decreased by 7.2% from R8.83 billion to R8.20 billion.
• The number of loans disbursed declined by 3.5% from 4.81 million to 4.64 million.
• The average size of loans disbursed decreased slightly from R1 837 to R1 767.
• The value of the gross loan book was R29.3 billion as at 31 May 2007.

MAY 2007 QUARTER OVERVIEW

Parts 1 to 5 is a discussion of the changes between the quarter ending February 2007 and the quarter ending May 2007.

1. Lending activity by banks flat when compared with previous quarter

Banks reported disbursements of R3.59 billion which are in line with those reported in the February quarter. This is the net result of moderate growth from a main stream bank and moderate consolidation of the remainder. The outstanding loan book was R14.63 billion as at the end of the quarter.

2. Seasonal decline of 17.19% reported by Private Companies

Private companies reflected a 17.19% decrease in disbursements, from R3.86 billion to R3.20 billion. The retail sector, which makes up a significant portion of Private Companies, was the main contributor to the decline. The outstanding loan book of the private companies was R13.38 billion as at the end of May 2007.

3. Closed Corporations, Trusts and Public Companies

· The combined disbursements for Closed Corporations and Trusts declined were R1.23 billion (a decline of 3.7%) in the May quarter. The average size of loan issued by this group of entities was R 782.

· Public Companies disbursements were R25, 2 million (growth of 7%) in the May quarter. The average size of loans disbursed was R 554.

4. Increase in business for Section 21 Companies

Section 21 companies (not for profit lenders) reported an increase of 10.8% in disbursements from R58.9 million in the February quarter to R65.2 million in the May quarter. This growth was driven by a large Section 21 company. The aggregate loan book for Section 21 companies increased by 2.2% to R98 million. More than 90% of the disbursements of Section 21 companies consist of loans to small businesses.

The statistics of this industry group reflect data from 19 companies registered under the Exemption Notice. 

5. Cooperatives reflect a 14.1% increase in disbursements

There are 26 Cooperatives registered with the MFRC. However, the values indicated for Cooperatives are dominated by one large Cooperative. Disbursements for this group in the May quarter were R83 million, which was 14.1% higher than that reported in the February 2007 quarter.

The deadline for the final phase of the credit information amnesty was 1 September 2007. This included the removal of judgment information of less than R50 000, taken prior to 1 September 2006, that was fully paid by the consumer by the deadline date.

This amnesty is in addition to the deletion of 16 million records from Experian Credit Bureau's records following the first phase of the amnesty that ended 1 June 2007.

Although the amnesty deadline has passed, consumers are still able to meet the requirements if they can provide proof of payment being made prior to 1 September 2007.

For consumers that qualify, they should ensure that they have received a “Paid-up” letter from the credit provider indicating the case number and submit it to Experian. Experian will verify the validity of the letter and remove the information.

Exciting career opportunities currently available at Experian: Head of Scoring - This position requires strong analytical skills in the realms of Credit Scoring and a participative leader to achieve quality, service and productivity levels in order to maintain excellent delivery standards and client satisfaction. You will be expected to manage a team of Scoring Analysts and assist in the consultancy, development and monitoring of scoring models. Click here for more information.

Development Manager - The main responsibility of this role is to establish and realise new business and market opportunities and build effective business relationships to ensure ongoing profitable business for Experian. Click here for more information.

Account Manager - The Account Manager is responsible for managing mid to high value clients as part of the Experian Account Management Team. The Account Manager is responsible for building and maintaining deep relationships with Experian's clients. This role is responsible for ongoing account management, revenue generation and client satisfaction including understanding the client's needs to identify opportunities for strategic services. Click here for more information.