* Posts third-quarter revenue up 14%
* Narrows organic revenue forecast for the year
* Shares down 1.7%
(Recasts, adds comments of chief communication officer, shares,
background)
By Sinchita Mitra
Jan 14 (Reuters) - Experian sees growing demand for
its services in the booming buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) sector as
it adds more clients to the unit, the world's largest credit
data firm said on Friday after a strong third quarter.
BNPL is a segment that is becoming more mainstream and
Experian's clients are demanding the company's services to know
whether an applicant is real or fraudulent, Chief Communication
Officer Nadia Ridout-Jamieson told Reuters.
"The interesting thing about buy now pay later, is that more
people want to know what it means for the total indebtedness of
the consumer, or how is the consumer handling debts," Jamieson
said.
Jamieson said the company has added a lot of clients in the
past year in its new BNPL segment.
Buy-now-pay-later services have exploded in popularity https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/paypal-says-buy-now-pay-later-volumes-surged-400-black-friday-2021-12-03.
PayPal Inc recorded five times higher volumes on its BNPL
platform on Black Friday 2021 compared to 2020.
Experian reported a 14% jump in its third-quarter revenue on
Friday, fuelled by robust demand for its services to consumers
and businesses in North America.
Demand for credit reports and scores has been rising in
Experian's main markets following the lifting of coronavirus
restrictions, flexible lending criteria and low interest rates
that have helped revive lending and marketing activities by
clients.
The Ireland-based company benefited from U.S. consumers
showing strong demand for credit in 2021, while applications for
credit overall rebounded to 2019 levels, according to a survey
released by the New York Federal Reserve November.
Experian said it expects its annual revenue to grow between
16% and 17%, above an earlier forecast of a 15% to 17% jump. The
London-listed firm, however, narrowed its organic revenue
forecast for the year, dented by weakness in its Europe, Middle
East and Africa markets.
Its shares are down 1.7% in early morning trading.
The company said it expects strong growth in its fourth
quarter, and that weakness in its Europe, Middle East and Africa
markets would subside.
(Reporting by Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak
Dasgupta, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and David Evans)