COSTA MESA, CALIF. -- Experian announced the integration of Mastercard’s identity verification and fraud prevention technology into the Experian Ascend Platform™. This collaboration will enable seamless, secure, and efficient identity verification for the company’s more than 1,800 global clients across industries such as financial services, automotive, health, and digital marketing, helping to prevent fraud and cybercrime.

A key feature in Experian’s Identity and Fraud solutions, identity verification, plays a vital role in the fight to prevent fraud and cybercrime. Ninety‑six percent of decision makers view identity verification as an important tool in preventing fraud, but 27% of businesses report that their current identity verification strategy negatively impacts legitimate customers and their experience.

Mastercard‘s Identity Insights enriches Experian’s data by verifying and connecting identity elements, aiming to validate individuals’ authenticity. When combined with Experian’s advanced fraud-detection capabilities, the integration offers robust protection against synthetic identity and application fraud, enhancing detection while reducing friction for legitimate customers. This solution is available through the Experian Ascend Platform across multiple geographies, including North America and UK & Ireland.

The joint solution delivers powerful identity assessment by uniting the Experian Ascend Platform—a decision engine built on Experian’s comprehensive data, strategy design, decision automation, monitoring and reporting—with Mastercard’s Identity Insights for validating identity elements such as name, email, and phone numbers, and analyzing related metadata.

The expanded collaboration builds upon the two companies‘ existing relationship, which has also encompassed open banking-powered solutions; Mastercard’s identity solutions can be accessed via Ascend Platform in multiple geographies.

“When acquiring new customers, our clients want a frictionless process where both ID and fraud, as well as credit risk, can be assessed as part of a single request that streamlines and speeds the customer experience,” said Greg Wright, Executive Vice President of Identity and Fraud, Experian Software Solutions. “Success is measured by helping our clients grow their business while making fast, efficient decisions. By enabling clients with advanced analytics solutions that bring credit, identity, and fraud data into the Ascend Platform, we help them achieve their strategic goals while also driving greater financial inclusion for consumers.”

“For many years, Mastercard and Experian have worked together to empower consumers to take financial control,” said Dennis Gamiello, EVP, Identity Solutions at Mastercard. “By integrating Mastercard’s Identity Insights with Experian’s platform insights, we're partnering to streamline the entire customer journey from digital onboarding to fast-tracking secure transactions and reducing fraud.”

“We believe signing up for electricity should be easy, so we need a system that addresses identity, fraud, and credit risk without adding friction or hassle for our customers,” said Laura Persson, General Manager at OhmConnect Energy, a Texas retail electric provider focused on energy savings. “Experian and Mastercard's automated service accomplishes this, so we can make it easy for our customers to enroll and start their energy-saving journey.”