Experian A/NZ acquires Australian fintech Look Who's Charging to bolster open data offering

SYDNEY,Aug. 21,2019 -- Experian Australia & New Zealand today announces its acquisition of Look Who's Charging,the Australian fintech startup which has solved the everyday frustrating problem of unrecognised bank transactions by providing instant clarification on the merchant behind a transaction.

(L-R) Current view,Look Who’s Charging view,In-depth merchant details

Look Who's Charging is integrated with a number of Australian banks,with their data available to millions of Australians directly within existing digital banking applications.

The move will combine Experian's global open data solutions with Look Who's Charging's advanced enrichment capabilities. Following the recent legislation of Open Banking as the first stage of the Consumer Data Right (CDR),the deal will create a market leading open data platform in the Australian market that will have wide ranging benefits for consumers,businesses and financial institutions.

Experian's present open data solution,built in the UK,facilitates 40% of all UK Open Banking application program interface (API) requests.

Andrew Black,Managing Director of Experian A/NZ explains how the acquisition enables Experian to provide organisations with a sophisticated aggregation and categorisation solution and granular insights for them to apply across their business:

"If a transaction is unable to be categorised accurately,it is often classed as 'unknown' which can result in decisions impacting consumers being based on limited data. This can have a big knock on effect if,for example,banks are using one platform to help a customer understand their own income and expenditure,and another to decide what loan they can afford.

With Look Who's Charging's enriched data integrated into our open data platform,we will be able to provide a uniquely accurate and comprehensive solution for the Australian market. This will help our customers lend more responsibly while enhancing their fraud checks and reducing their call centre traffic for unrecognised transaction queries,as well as ensuring consumers have a greater understanding of their financial situation."

Over 1 billion transactions are enriched every single month through Look Who's Charging's platform to provide Australian consumers complete clarity on their spending.

"Look Who's Charging's forward-looking and problem-solving nature is aligned with our business and approach to innovation," adds Mr Black. "We share the aim to help businesses and consumers make better and more informed decisions,and we are delighted to be working with a company who is truly having a positive impact on not only our financial services industry but Australian consumers too."

Ben Elliott,CEO of Experian APAC commented: "The acquisition - our sixth investment in Asia Pacific since 2017 (following venture investments in Grab,Jirnexu,C88 Financial Technologies,BankBazaar.com and CompareAsiaGroup) - demonstrates our ongoing commitment to investing in this region and using our advanced data and analytics expertise to remove complexity from the lending process. Bringing Look Who's Charging and our innovative solutions together will help Australian organisations,and ultimately consumers,as Open Banking standards are adopted in Australia."

Founder of Look Who's Charging,Stuart Grover,said: "We are extremely excited to combine the technology and data we have built to support the Australian banks with Experian's market leading open data technology. We are very proud to have built Look Who's Charging from an idea,born from the frustration of unrecognised transactions to a product which helps millions of Australian consumers,in under 4 years.

With Experian's scale,we have an opportunity to help solve more of the immediate problems faced by Australian consumers and financial institutions,whilst the Look Who's Charging solution is also rolled out to other key markets around the world."

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 organisations 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 maximise every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Learn more at experianplc.com or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group.

About Look Who's Charging

Look Who's Charging has developed a multi-award winning data platform that provides comprehensive and meaningful information on bank statement transactions. The platform has a wide range of use cases from providing consumers and businesses with clarity on their spend to improving decision making and reducing costs for financial institutions through efficiencies in the loan application process.

Since launching in 2016 Look Who's Charging has completed integrations with a number of large financial institutions and its data is utilised by millions of Australians. Look Who's Charging has built a team of highly skilled individuals with deep expertise in machine learning and AI. Further information can be found at Look Who's Charging.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this release is for general guidance on matters of interest only and has beenprepared without taking account of the objectives,financial situation or needs of any particular individual. For this reason,any individual should consider the appropriateness of the information,having regard to their objectives,financial situation and needs and,if necessary,seek appropriate professional advice. The changing nature of laws,regulations and rules,and of economic trends and the variables impacting them across different geographies,may mean it contains some omissions or inaccuracies. The information given is provided "as is",and without warranty of any kind,express or implied,including,but not limited to warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. It is not intended to represent legal,credit risk,economic or other professional advice. In no event will Experian or its related partnerships or corporations,or its partners,agents or employees be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken in reliance on the information in this report or for any consequential,special or similar damages.

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