news release

Partnership will enable housing providers to share their tenants' rental payment information quickly and easily

Nottingham, UK, 24 July 2014 - Experian®, the global information services company, has partnered with Capita's software services business, to enable easy and efficient collection of social housing rental data from social housing providers. By sharing rental data, social housing providers will play a key role in helping their tenants gain access to basic services and more affordable credit.

Capita is the first software provider to support the Rental Exchange project - a scheme driven by Big Issue Invest and Experian to help the social housing sector address the financial, digital and social exclusion challenges faced by many social housing tenants.  The Rental Exchange is a secure and compliant way to include a tenant's payment history in credit reports, with their permission, strengthening their credit history and helping them qualify for lower-cost credit deals and basic financial services, such as current accounts.

As one of the leading software providers to the housing and social housing marketplace, Capita has developed a solution to specifically support the scheme.  Capita InSight's Rental Exchange is a new module that now forms part of Capita's reporting and business intelligence tool Capita InSight, which is already used by many housing providers.

This means that it can be plugged into Capita's housing management systems and the information related to tenants' rental payment behaviours can be taken out easily and accurately, and fed directly into the Rental Exchange.

This information can then be factored into future credit reports to significantly improve the level of insight available to credit providers when it comes to assessing affordability. 

Capita InSight's Rental Exchange module has a high degree of automation, so that housing associations do not have to spend time, resource and effort on manually creating monthly reports. The tool is compatible with Capita's existing housing software platforms  and is free of charge to housing providers that currently use Capita InSight.

Capita and Experian are also working in close partnership to offer full support and help for housing providers using the system.

Roger Birkinshaw, Housing Director for Capita's Software Services Business, said: "One of the barriers for housing providers to engage in this scheme is the challenge of setting up a process to regularly share the rental data.  They do not have the capacity to spend valuable time reviewing data. The Rental Exchange is a fantastic initiative and we are proud to be helping towards tackling financial exclusion by developing an automatic data extraction solution to enable the smooth exchange of this information." 

Jonathan Westley, Managing Director of Consumer Information Services at Experian UK & Ireland, commented: "Capita has been extremely proactive and supportive, developing a module specifically for this cause.  Capita is playing a significant role in helping us get closer to our goal of closing the information gap that stops social housing clients accessing affordable credit and basic services, such as current accounts."

Solihull Community Housing was the first social housing landlord to go live with Capita's Insight Rental Exchange.  Chris Deery, Head of ICT at Solihull Community Housing, said: "We have wanted to be a part of this project from the start as we knew it would really help our tenants.  The partnership between Capita and Experian has significantly helped speed the process along.  Furthermore, Capita has demonstrated a real sense of corporate social responsibility by being the first major software provider to fully embrace this scheme."

The Rental Exchange is a partnership between Experian and Big Issue Invest (the investment arm of The Big Issue) with the aim of helping the social housing sector address the financial, digital and social exclusion challenges faced by many social housing tenants. 

For further information about the Rental Exchange or get involved, please visit: http://www.experian.co.uk/rental-exchange/contact-us-form.html

ENDS

Contact:
Maddy Morgan Williams / Sarah Muir
Lansons Communications
020 7490 8828
maddymw@lansons.com / sarahm@lansons.com

About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients around the world. The Group helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2014 was US$4.8 billion. Experian employs approximately 16,000 people in 39 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.
For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.

About Capita
Capita's software services business attributes its position as the leading supplier of software solutions to the public sector and housing marketplace, to its strong partnership approach. It works closely with customers to provide tailored systems in the disciplines of integrated housing management, customer services, mobile technology, payment collection, income management, revenues and benefits processing and services and policy training. Capita's customers benefit from a bespoke service, helping them to streamline their processes and deliver a high performance citizen-centric service

Part of Capita plc, the company has experienced strong and consistent growth since its inception in 1994 and works with over 70 per cent of local authorities in the UK. Further information on Capita's software services business can be found at: www.capita-software.co.uk

Capita plc is the UK's leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions. With 64,000 people at over 400 sites, including 73 business centres across the UK, Europe, India and South Africa, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its clients' services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 with 2013 revenue of £3.9 billion.www.capita.co.uk

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