CHICAGO, Jan. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) has announced a strategic investment in Bud Financial Limited (Bud), a leader in Open Banking and data intelligence. This dynamic partnership will help drive innovation and growth in the personal finance market and support better outcomes for consumers, with greater financial inclusion.

Open Banking plays an increasingly key role in facilitating innovation in the world of personal finance and automated income verification. It allows finance providers to better verify the income of applicants, including those who may not have a detailed credit history, or have had trouble accessing credit previously, and offers an alternative to manual, often resource-intensive processes.

“TransUnion is committed to increasing financial inclusion by continuing to expand the information available to create an accurate and reliable picture of each consumer,” said Satrajit “Satty” Saha, CEO of TransUnion in the UK. “This strategic investment marks the start of an exciting new partnership with Bud, combining our global infrastructure and insights expertise with Bud’s end-to-end Open Banking platform. This will allow us to grow our Open Banking offering and jointly develop the next generation of credit, affordability and fraud solutions.”

Headquartered in the UK, Bud helps its clients to turn complicated financial data into services that accelerate growth. Clients use Bud’s platform to enhance their customer onboarding experience and personal financial management services, in order to boost engagement and increase loyalty. Bud’s aggregation and categorisation capabilities power lending through income and employment verification, affordability assessments and ongoing transaction monitoring – connecting people to financial products and services that improve their lives.

Edward Maslaveckas, CEO of Bud said: “Bud exists to make financial decisions simple by turning transactional data into rich customer insight. By partnering with TransUnion, we’re able to combine advanced data intelligence capability with TransUnion’s expertise in financial services. This will drive improved return on investment for all of our customers, by connecting more people, through the banks they trust, to financial products that make their lives better.”

Bud is well-established in the Open Banking space, and its platform and new data sources allow consumers to access affordable and appropriate lending products, especially for those who might otherwise have trouble accessing credit. To help maximize this partnership, TransUnion’s Satty Saha will join the Bud board of directors and work closely with the Bud executive team to support future growth objectives.

Todd Skinner, TransUnion’s international president added: “As Bud expands its global presence, we see strong opportunities for harnessing our synergies to deploy innovative solutions that can be transferred to other TransUnion markets. We look forward to deepening and evolving this partnership, with Satty as part of the Bud leadership team, to support businesses and consumers, both in the UK and beyond.”

For further updates visit transunion.com/business and thisisbud.com

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)
TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionable picture of each person so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good®.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

About Bud
Bud increases customer lifetime value with intelligent use of data.

We understand finances, improve customer financial wellbeing, and simplify lending, so you can offer the next generation of financial experiences to your customers.

You can build our technology directly into your stack or pick one of our off-the-shelf solutions.

With over 2.5 billion transactions processed and 1 billion transactions enriched, Bud's AI is constantly learning and improving to better serve you and your customers.