Experian Grows Innovation Footprint to Financially Enable India’s 190 Million Unbanked

Experian, the world leader in information services, is further expanding and investing in its innovation facility, Experian X Labs based in Singapore. The facility serves as Experian’s first incubator and collaboration centre for cutting-edge solutions, aimed at addressing pressing economic and societal issues in the India, such as financial inclusion. The Experian X Labs team, comprises of data scientists, product architects and industry innovators.

Financial inclusion is a significant challenge for economic progress in India, a region that is home to more than 190 million people without access to formal financial services[1]. Fostering greater financial inclusion, through financial access and education, will lead to more opportunities and economic growth. The Experian X Labs team leverages alternative data, advanced analytics and partnerships with industry organisations to develop technology solutions that will bridge the gap between India’s unbanked and financial service providers. The recently expanded Experian DataLabs[2] plays an integral role in the facility, providing a compliant and secure environment for experimentation with data and collaborative research.

Mohan Jayaraman, Regional Managing Director, Decision Analytics and Business Information Services at Experian Asia Pacific, said: “Responsible innovation is the driving force behind our work at Experian. Matching major societal issues with localised solutions, the data science and technology experts at Experian X Labs are tapping on data generated from alternative sources to provide valuable insights into a person’s credit worthiness. Data generated through the region’s rapidly growing internet penetration and mobile usage rates, for example, can help build financial identities for Asia’s unbanked. In the Indian context, this also translates into harnessing various initiatives in the India tech stack and the vibrant data economy to look at opportunities for boosting financial inclusion.”

Solutions that are currently in development at Experian X Labs include Experian X Score, a credit-scoring system based on alternative data, aimed at helping the new-to-credit population in India strengthen their financial identities and progressively gain access to a wider set of financial services. To achieve this, Experian India has partnered with multiple local entities in the digital payment processing and personal finance space. These developments will follow Experian’s previously launched Prove-ID in India[3], an automated identity and address verification service that helps over 7 million marginalised Indian citizens gain access to government and financial services. Prove-ID gathers key consumer insights from multiple data sources and helps banks verify customers at a faster and more efficient rate.

Experian X Labs provides the organisation with a platform to collaborate with start-ups, fintech providers, related businesses and academic institutions in the region. The team is also working to seed and develop APAC-wide solutions aligned with Experian’s core areas of expertise around financial inclusion, digital payments and consumer enablement through advanced data analytics, research and development. In addition to developing innovative technology solutions, the Experian X Labs will continue to play a central role in Experian’s efforts to build digital financial marketplaces in the region, better matching financial solutions with people who need them.