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14 June 2024 – As South Africa commemorates Youth Day, the spotlight falls on the financial health of young consumers and their ability to leverage credit as a tool for empowerment. Experian's Consumer Default Index (CDIx) for Q1 2024 reveals a complex picture for young South Africans, highlighting the need for both increased access to responsible credit and enhanced financial literacy.

5 June 2024 - The fight against fraud is constantly evolving. Experian’s recent fraud research shows that 71% of the fraud leaders in our survey are struggling to keep up with the rapidly evolving fraud threat. But as new technology creates opportunities for fraudsters, so too does it enable better fraud prevention. This balance between fraud attacks and prevention is highly dynamic, and the only way to stay ahead of fraudsters is to take advantage of the latest fraud detection technology. The demand for new technology is clear, with 73% of businesses in the survey seeing their fraud losses increase in the past 12 months.

Johannesburg, 21 May 2024: At Experian’s annual Fraud Forum held last week in Johannesburg, industry experts convened to discuss the pressing trends, challenges, and priorities in fraud prevention as highlighted in Experian’s Defeating Fraud Report conducted in partnership with Forrester Consulting. The report reveals that 76% of South African respondents have seen an increase in fraud losses over the past year, underscoring the urgency of effective fraud prevention measures. 

12 March 2024 - The Experian Consumer Default Index (CDIx) for Q4 of 2023, has revealed a deterioration from 3.97 to 4.68 – a relative change of 18%.  Experian advises consumers to exercise caution in this challenging financial environment.

11 December 2023: : According to the latest Experian Consumer Default Index (CDIx) for Q3, the composite CDI has shown a significant year-on-year deterioration from 3.69 to 4.88, a relative decline of 32%, indicating that consumers are increasingly struggling to meet their debt obligations amidst the rising cost of living.

Johannesburg, 17 October 2023: In a first of its kind partnership, Experian, one of the largest credit bureaus in South Africa and Chenosis, a cross-industry Application Programming Interface (API) marketplace, a MTN Platform Company, have joined forces to leverage data to drive financial inclusion in South Africa.

17 October 2023: The 19th of October serves as a reminder of the importance of credit awareness. Get Smart About Credit Day emphasises the need to reflect on and take control of one's financial behaviour, regardless of whether an individual is starting their credit journey or has been credit active for a considerable period

Johannesburg, 12 October 2023: The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI), which reflects the overall health of businesses in the economy, declined in Q2 to 0.445 from a slightly upwardly revised 0.740 in Q1.

Johannesburg, 30 August 2023: According to the latest Experian Consumer Default Index (CDIx) for Q2, South African women account for half of the total amount of consumers on the credit bureau. This means that in terms of being credit active, women are fairly represented in the credit economy. From a credit exposure perspective however, only R0.8 trillion out of the full R2.18 trillion in outstanding debt is associated with women.

Johannesburg, 15 August 2023: Experian, one of the largest credit bureaus in South Africa, has launched Up, a free credit, budgeting and learning experience web-based app, that aims to help South Africans take control of their financial health.

Johannesburg, 27 July 2023: Taking control of your financial health through effective budgeting can be beneficial and liberating. By creating a budget and smartly managing your expenses, you can ensure that your hard-earned money lasts longer and works towards securing a prosperous future.

18 July 2023:  The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI), which reflects the relative ability for business to pay their outstanding suppliers/creditors, indicating the overall health of businesses in the economy, declined at a better-than-expected rate for Q1 of 2023. The decline to 0.721 from an upwardly revised 1.086 reading for Q4 2022, is attributed to a better-than-expected economic performance for the period

20 June 2023: The latest Experian Consumer Default Index (CDI), showed a return to the former trend of long-term deterioration, expedited by the rapid increase in living expenses experienced by South African consumers and exacerbated by the significantly intensified load shedding applied by Eskom during 2023 Q1

19 April 2023: The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI) unsurprisingly declined sharply to a reading of 0.996 in Q4 2022 from 1.591 in Q3. 

22 March 2023: The Experian Consumer Default Index (CDI) showed a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) deterioration from 3.66 in September 2022 to 3.93 in December 2022, indicating that South African consumers remain under financial pressure.

18 December 2022: There has been a strong improvement in South African business debt conditions in Q3, according to new insight from Experian South Africa.

7 December 2022: South African consumers remain under financial pressure, according to latest Experian CDI report

3 November 2022: There has been a decline in business debt conditions in Q2, with this downward trajectory likely to continue in the coming quarters, according to new insight from Experian South Africa. 

11 October 2022: The rate people defaulted on their loans for the first time increased in the second quarter of 2022, according to Experian South Africa’s Consumer Default Index (CDI). 

8 September 2022: Experian South Africa hosted its annual client conference in Johannesburg today which brought together experts and  industry guests to discuss  the latest credit trends and highlight how business and consumer behaviour has evolved since the onset of Covid. Attendees were given insights into how to achieve more in their businesses by improving decisions and strategies, reducing risk and fraud, and enhancing data, analytics, software, and technology.

16 August 2022: The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI) increased in Q1 from Q4 2021, rising to 1.435 from an upwardly revised 0.970.

27 July 2022: Jaco van Jaarsveldt explains that the rate people defaulted on their loans for the first time has decreased in the first quarter of the year according to our Consumer Default Index (CDI).

26 January 2022: SMEs continue to be a driving force of inclusive economic growth and job creation in the country. Understanding the role of a business credit report and enhanced financial and credit education initiatives are important to help SMEs to stay in business and grow their profits contributing to the financial health of the whole socioeconomic ecosystem they form. 

25 August 2021: Jaco van Jaarsveldt explains that the rate people defaulted on their loans for the first time has decreased in the second quarter of the year according to our Consumer Default Index (CDI).

24 June 2021: Jaco van Jaarsveldt, Chief Decision Analytics Officer at Experian Africa, explains that business conditions are moving in the right direction as the economy recovers from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

15 June 2021: The rate people defaulted on their loans for the first time increased in the first quarter of the year, according to Experian South Africa’s Consumer Default Index (CDI).

31 May 2021: Annelene Dippenaar, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at Experian Africa, explain why it's important to understand your credit score, how it works and how to build a good credit score.

11 May 2021: Jaco van Jaarsveldt, Chief Decision Analytics Officer at Experian Africa, explains the difference between traditional and alternative credit data and scores as well as the impact that COVID-19 has had on the traditional criteria when assessing risk.

26 March 2021: Last year was a challenging year for us all. It’s been just over 12 months since the Minister of Health announced the first confirmed COVID-19 case in South Africa. As lockdown posed many restrictions, scammers have come up with innovative ways to deceive people, and we’ve seen an increase in some posing as ‘credit repair agents’.

24 March 2021: Insights from Experian South Africa show the rate that people defaulted on their loans fell at the end of last year, primarily due to a combination of the impact of payment holidays and lenders tightening their criteria.

1 September 2020, Johannesburg: Experian continues to investigate the isolated incident in South Africa involving a fraudulent data inquiry. As a part of this investigation, we have identified files which we believe contain Experian data relating to the incident on the internet. We continue to investigate these files and will take all steps available to us to reduce further dissemination if possible. We can confirm that a criminal case was opened last week in South Africa and the matter is now in the hands of law enforcement.

19 August 2020: Experian South Africa is continuing to investigate an isolated incident in South Africa involving a fraudulent data inquiry.

1 July 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the Experian Consumer Default Index reaching its highest level in five years with R20.73bn defaulted for first time over the period Jan 2020 to Apr 2020.

22 June 2020: To help ease the financial pressures experienced during this time, most banks have introduced payment holidays for consumers and SME’s experiencing challenges that meet the specific banks’ applicable criteria. 

22 June 2020: Through tracking and analysis of the emerging patterns in the credit and related industries, we see early indicators of what is to come over the next few months.

Thursday 27 February 2020, Business Day

28 February 2020: Latest Consumer Default Index Q4

01 February 2020: Experian's 2020 Global Identity & Fraud Report explores inconsistencies between businesses' views of their ability to meet their customers' needs, and customer experiences with those businesses.

Johannesburg, 12 December 2019: The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI) improved moderately in Q3 from Q2, rising to a reading of -0.18, from -0.35 in Q2.

Johannesburg, 27 November 2019: Experian South Africa has released its Consumer Default Index (CDI) for Q3, which saw the overall index increase from 3.76% in the second quarter to 3.93% in September 2019, amounting to R1.72 Trillion in outstanding debt.

Johannesburg, 20 November 2019: Joining forces, Experian South Africa, Absa and Township Fleva, today launched project Spana, an annual programme developed to provide small business loans to local entrepreneurs in Gauteng townships.

Johannesburg, 16 October 2019: What does it mean to be financially responsible? As a general rule, you need to live within your means and your expenses should not exceed your income. A big part of this is to manage your credit responsibly and to keep on top of your payments – the way you manage credit can impact your ability to get future loans, like finance for a car, a bond for a house or even a cell phone contract.

Johannesburg, 15 October 2019: Subscribers who access consumer credit information for employment vetting purposes should take note of the recent Circular 4/2019 issued by the National Credit Regulator setting out the requirements for data access.

When an enquiry is performed in terms of Regulation 18(4)(g) for the purpose of employment, it may only be done for a position that requires honesty in dealing with cash or finances and the job description of such position needs to be clearly outlined. It is thus the responsibility of the credit bureau to ensure the compliance of our subscribers with Regulation 19(12) of the Act.

Johannesburg, 19 September 2019: There is a growing ‘confidence gap’ between how well businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) believe their fraud prevention performance is optimised and the reality, according to new commissioned research by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Experian.

Click here to access the report

Johannesburg, 26 August 2019: In an effort to aid overburdened low-income citizens, on 15 August 2019, President Ramaphosa signed the National Credit Amendment Act, 7 of 2019 which brings about debt relief interventions for overly indebted consumers.

Johannesburg, 1 May 2019: Experian today completed its historic acquisition of Compuscan and Scoresharp. The combined organisation will spur financial inclusion across the African region, bringing more people into the credit economy and helping create a better tomorrow for millions of people.