Experian®, at its 37th annual Vision Conference, today announced it has become a certified vendor of the Small Business Financial Exchange, Inc. (SBFE), a nonprofit trade association that gathers and aggregates small-business payment data in the United States to help organizations build a complete picture of small business.

“We’re excited to work with SBFE, which shares our mission to bring further innovation to the small-business credit landscape,” said Hiq Lee, president, Experian Business Information Services. “By combining the SBFE’s data richness with Experian’s vast consumer and commercial data assets and leading data science capabilities, we will use the power of data to help our clients make the right decisions.”

As a SBFE Certified Vendor, Experian can combine its rich data — including traditional and alternative business data and consumer data on business owners — with SBFE’s data to provide the most comprehensive view of a small business in the market today. For example, financial institutions looking for broad and deep insights on small and emerging businesses will be able to find that information in a way no one has offered previously.

Also for the first time, Experian clients that are nonfinancial institutions, such as e-commerce, communications, insurers, and software and hardware vendors, can qualify to access this financial data to help them make confident credit decisions by gaining deep visibility into a small business’s capital use and credit history through Experian.

“Experian becoming an SBFE Certified Vendor makes perfect sense in support of our ongoing mission to serve our Members and the small-business community,” said Carolyn Hardin-Levine, CEO, SBFE. “Experian demonstrated its ability to meet SBFE’s high data security and governance requirements, controls, and independent oversight requirements. Additionally, Experian’s ability to deliver blended solutions combined with SBFE data will provide our Members with more options and drive innovation as part of SBFE’s single-feed, multicertified vendor model.”

New product pipeline
Experian fosters a culture of continuous innovation, from the way it works to the solutions it creates. The company plans to deploy its data scientists to apply leading-edge techniques, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, to discover and provide predictive insights and analytical tools to support better decisioning for its clients. It is anticipated that the work of its data scientists on the combined data sets will result in new product launches over the next 24 months.

Vision Conference
Each year, Vision combines in-depth research, cutting-edge technology and expertise from industry leaders to help Experian’s clients strengthen their balance sheets and plan for sustained growth. The 2018 conference sold out and runs May 20–23 in Scottsdale, Ariz.