Card firm credits Experian with multimillion deal

Credit card issuer Vanquis Bank has extended an existing relationship with credit validation company Experian with a five-year, multimillion-pound deal.

The deal sees Experian providing credit bureau data to the company, which specialises in issuing credit cards to customers who would not qualify with bigger issuers.

As part of the contract, Vanquis will make use of Experian's Transact SM application to test and manage its decision processes when deciding whether to approve a new customer's card application.

According to Phil Pringle, Vanquis head of commercial delivery, the main advantage of the new agreement is the flexibility of application development, with new versions of Experian's applications managed in-house for the first time.

"With the Transact system, we are now able to create credit policies and workflows without external development. The speed to market of products and the cost of product testing has been dramatically improved," he said.

Pringle told silicon.com the Transact system will support planned cautious growth in the Vanquis customer base, giving it the ability to manage risk around its target market defaulting on credit payments.

"We need to make sure we are lending money to the right people," Pringle added.

Testing will begin this week with the system expected to go live in April.