Experian's illion acquisition unopposed by ACCC
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Experian Australia Credit Services — the joint venture of Experian Australia, the big four banks, Latitude Financial and American Express — can move ahead with its plans to buy illion, after the competition regulator said it would not oppose the deal.
The context: In an announcement on Thursday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said despite the proposed merger combining two of the three consumer credit bureaux, the companies provide a weak competitive constraint against market leader Equifax.
As a result, the lack of competitive constraint is unlikely to change without the merger, the ACCC said.
The ACCC announced a public merger review of the deal on 5 April. Both Experian and illion provide consumer credit reporting services in Australia to lenders, utilities, telecommunication providers and loan providers.
The companies also supply related services, including software for managing customer originations, marketing services, categorisation solutions and identity verification services.
What they said: “Without the merger, and given their lack of scale and access to a large, high quality comprehensive dataset, it is difficult to see how Experian or illion could, by operating separately, materially expand their individual service offerings to compete more effectively with Equifax for primary bureau status," ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said in a statement.
“Due to its lack of scale, Experian has failed to gain traction in the market for consumer credit reporting services in Australia despite its joint venture arrangements with the four major banks, which are key sources of credit data," Carver said.
The source: ACCC media release
