Experian Acquires Credit Bureau in Romania

Experian®, the global information solutions company, has signed an agreement to acquire Expert Credit Bureau (ExCB) from UCS Romania. ExCB has been in operation since early 2005, serving clients from the banking and non-banking industries in Romania. ExCB currently holds mostly negative data but plans to move into both positive and negative data processing shortly.

“This acquisition represents a significant increase in Experian’s consumer information activities in the new Europe,” said John Saunders, Chief Executive Officer, Global Operations, of Experian. “It complements the activities of our specialist decision support solutions business, Experian-Scorex and consolidates its position in the region as a leading provider of information solutions and risk management. ExCB has been a pioneer in the credit bureau business in Romania and we believe that this acquisition will bring considerable benefits to our clients already operating in this country.

“Experian is the world’s leading credit bureau operator and has built up considerable expertise and knowledge, and already operates credit bureaux in 12 international markets, including Bulgaria and Russia. We shall combine this expertise with the predictive analytics, decision support technologies and strategy optimisation skills of Experian-Scorex to enhance ExCB’s services to address issues such as fraud, overindebtedness and controlling credit risk.

“The consumer economy is growing rapidly in Romania and we believe that introducing shared credit information via credit bureaux will result in better risk management for lenders and sustainable financial market stability for lenders and consumers.”

The acquisition is consistent with Experian’s global strategy of acquiring complementary businesses that provide new products, new data or entry into new vertical or regional markets, while leveraging the core assets of Experian.