TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

The next impact came from Brexit and then COVID and then all of that together seems to have fueled some high rates of inflation and increasing unemployment in the UK, which has made it a very difficult lending environment, which continues to impact the fintechs. So after digesting all of this and looking back at the growth rates that we expect, the one that we’ve achieved but also that we can expect in the intermediate period given the condition of that economy, we thought it was prudent to take the charge to goodwill that we did in the quarter.

Operator: The next question comes from Andrew Nicholas of William Blair.

Andrew Nicholas: I heard quite a bit about some of the strengths and weaknesses within core credit in the US, I just wanted to ask maybe more directly on market share there. It seems like most of the rationale to this point is tied to end market weakness or end market dynamics. Is there anything that you can say about kind of competitive positioning or competitive successes in that market and how much conviction you have that you’re still growing share there?

Chris Cartwright: As we look at it, we don’t believe it’s a share issue, it’s an issue more of business comparability at this point. As many of you have noted, the portfolios of the three bureaus have diverged over time. Some are more focused on direct-to-consumer, some of them are more focused on employment and income and then TransUnion has a very large share, arguably leading market share in the US, providing services to lenders and insurers that want to originate loans and policies. There’s also a question of what’s reported in the various segments and kind of the surgery you’ve got to do to get a true comparison. One example is that we report batch marketing services within our US vertical, not everybody does. We separate direct-to-consumer, some people include that.

We don’t have commercial data and given the size of our lending business overall, the benefits in mortgage of a significant price increase from a third-party score provider gets diluted a bit over our larger market share and lending base than with other players in the space. And so as we compare and evaluate our own performance, you got to consider those differences in what’s included as well as the varying size of the respective positions. But no, we don’t think share has really anything to do with this and we’re not really pointing anything to the positive or the negative.

Aaron Hoffman: Great. And given the time is we’re on a busy earnings day, we are going to end our call at this point. We thank you all for joining us. this morning, and we look forward to speaking with you either later this week or over the course of the quarter. Thanks.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation, and you may now disconnect.