On Tuesday the 12th of November we attended the Lending Summit, an event hosted by Credit Strategy in London. The event, of which Equifax was a sponsor, covered a variety of topics across three core streams: Alternative Finance, Commercial Finance and Mortgage Lending. As such, we took the opportunity to present on two subjects that are increasingly important for us - Open Banking and AI. 

Karl-Magnus Wadsack, Strategic Alliances Director, co-presented "Bigger data, smaller risk" with Emma Steeley, CEO of our partner AccountScore, who - we are delighted to announce - also came away from the event with an award for Business Leader of the Year! No small achievement, and a testament to the calibre of our partners and the solutions that we're working on together.

On the subject of AI, John Power, VP Strategic Client Engagement, International D & A,  took to the stage in the afternoon to discuss the role AI can play for lenders, why explainability is key, and covered some of the great work our D&A function has done - not least in the creation of NeuroDecision, Equifax's own explainable AI solution.

We teamed with AccountScore once again on Wednesday at the Open Banking Expo, a short distance from our London office in St Paul's - where our resident Open Banking expert, Dan Weaver guided the audience through the benefits of our new Financial Health Index, which alongside traditional credit scores offers a powerful combination of data for our clients to help them make better credit decisions. 

This event saw over 500 delegates come together to develop a greater understanding of the many use cases of Open Banking and Equifax sponsored a stream at the event, where Karl-Magnus was kept busy for a second day running as stream host, introducing the speakers and chairing a panel of experts discussing "global developments in an open finance world”. 

Together both events over two days provided a fantastic opportunity to meet new and existing clients face-to-face and reinforce the value we can add to their businesses by helping them implement a variety of solutions.