Experian Insights Report: COVID-19 on Indian Businesses

Experian’s research shows major shifts in consumer behaviour and business strategy pre- and post-COVID-19, with economic perception at the epicentre

The pandemic has created a seismic shift in the volume of online activity and experiences in the past few months. Experian’s Global Insights Report, one of the first large-scale surveys assessing the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and consumers explores the major shifts in consumer behaviour and business strategy pre- and post-COVID-19, with economic perception at the epicentre. According to the report, 43% of Indian consumers have indicated that their household income has declined since COVID-19, thereby, being concerned about their well-being. Not just consumers, even businesses have been concerned about the well-being of their customers. This is evident in the fact that 53% of Indian businesses have highlighted health & safety of customers as the biggest challenge.

Experian surveyed 3,000 consumers and 900 executives working in retail banks, e-commerce, consumer technology and telecommunications. Respondents spanned India, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The survey was conducted in June and July and covered consumer and business economic outlooks, financial well-being, online behaviour and more.

The report also says that 74% consumers in India more strongly indicated that businesses are doing a better job at communicating about the use of their personal data since COVID-19. This shows that not only are people relying on mobile and digital channels to bank, shop, work and socialise, they’re also closely watching how businesses respond to their needs.

Key highlights for India from Experian’s Global Insights Report – Business Survey:

Health & Safety: 53% of Indian businesses indicate health & safety of customers as the biggest challenge; followed by 48% health & safety of customers and 38% operational adjustments
Identity (KYC):
- Since the pandemic, nearly 40% of businesses in India and Singapore have implemented strategies related to recognizing their customers across their various platforms – the highest within the APAC region
- Customer authentication solutions receiving the most focus involve Know Your Customers (50%), security measures in customers’ devices (49%) and multi-factor/two-factor authentication (48%)
- Since COVID-19, the most common fraud detection and protection methods include security measures in customers’ devices (20%), physical biometrics (19%), Customer Identification Programme (17%) and PIN codes (16%)
Fraud Prevention:
- 82% of Indian businesses indicate the highest intention to increase fraud management budgets in the next 12 months as against 69% in APAC; however, 61% businesses are much more likely to place a focus on revenue generation than putting resources on fraud detection as compared to 47% in APAC
Credit Management:
- High intention to implement policy rules (31%), automated decision management (30%) and hybrid of business rules (29%) are the top three solutions most used to assess & manage customer credit risk and credit worthiness
- 84% of Indian businesses are increasing their budget for analytics and customer creditworthiness in the next 12 months
Crisis of Confidence in Data and Decision models:
- There has been an erosion in the confidence of businesses in India in the effectiveness of analytics models related to consumer credit risk (from 83% to 76%) and consumer collections decisions (from 81% to 76%)
- Nearly 81% of the businesses have increased an adaption of Artificial Intelligence to help manage their businesses in the current marketplace
- Businesses have re-examined their existing analytics models and are looking for ways to improve with 24% relating to the hybrid approach to analytics models
- 99% of the businesses in India strongly consider (very/somewhat) the lack of historical data and its impact on analytics performance; to make up for this lack of historical data, 67% of businesses prefer asking customers to contribute more information

Commenting on the business findings for India, Sathya Kalyanasundaram, Country Head and Managing Director, Experian India said, “I have always believed that challenging times present the best opportunities. While businesses have had to grapple with the onslaught of the pandemic initially, we have also witnessed greater agility and adaptability in the banking, financial services and insurance sector. We are working closely with financial institutions by providing them with on-premise and cloud-based solutions. Experian’s latest cloud based PowerCurve suite of decision management solutions enable companies to automate decisions across an increasingly complex customer journey. We provide the option of pre-configured solutions for organisations that prefer standard, ‘out of the box’ applications, as well as solutions that can be tailored to their infrastructure and requirements for rapid deployment, so clients can quickly adapt their decisioning strategies to minimise risk, preserve valuable relationships and remain fair and compliant.”

An example of a bank successfully digitising their processes on the cloud is AU Small Finance Bank, a retail bank. AU Small Finance Bank digitised its previously manual lending process with Experian’s PowerCurve Customer Acquisition. The end-to-end solution involved digitising and automating the application and approval process for a new credit card offering, enabling automated decisioning, and provided the ability to host and configure scorecards.

“Being able to tap into Experian’s data, decisioning software and analytics has helped us accelerate our own transformation while we continue to redefine the banking experience for consumers in the markets we serve,” says Mayank Markanday, President and Chief Risk Officer at AU Bank. “Out-of-the-box decision management technology saves us time and resources, so we can focus on delivering innovative solutions to meet our customers’ needs, always guided by the principles of simplicity, inclusion and progress for all.”