Experian has announced plans to establish a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) bureau in the spring aimed at protecting consumer credit scores.

The company, which has been working with some of the largest BNPL providers since 2016, said that the “first-of-its kind speciality bureau” will provide “visibility so lenders can help further financial inclusion and better assess risk while preventing negative impact to consumer credit scores”.

It explained that the majority of BNPL accounts are not reported to credit bureaus because today’s most commonly used score models are designed to predict risk based on payment behaviours of mainstream credit products, not BNPL accounts.

“Our mission is to drive financial inclusion while ensuring responsible lending and we believe the reporting of BNPL payments plays a critical role in achieving this,” said Greg Wright, executive vice president and chief product officer for Experian Consumer Information Services. “At the same time, we are committed to giving BNPL providers the confidence they can report information to us without negatively impacting consumer credit scores.

“We are confident we have found a solution with The Buy Now Pay Later Bureau that will help protect consumer credit scores while bringing more transparency to the industry.”

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