Creditinfo and Equifax take Kount fraud controls across 10 European markets

Creditinfo Group and Equifax UK have formed a partnership to provide digital fraud-detection capabilities to Creditinfo clients in 10 European countries, combining local credit intelligence with Equifax’s Kount 360 platform.

Participating financial institutions and digital businesses will be able to use Kount 360 to analyse real-time signals including email addresses, internet protocol data and device intelligence. The companies said the platform processes billions of signals to identify potentially fraudulent behaviour during digital interactions.

The controls are intended to detect threats including malicious automated bots, credential stuffing and account takeover attempts. These attacks can expose lenders and payment providers to fraudulent applications, unauthorised transactions and losses associated with compromised customer accounts.

Creditinfo will contribute local-market data and risk knowledge, while Equifax will supply the global analytics and technology infrastructure. The announcement did not identify the 10 European countries individually or disclose the partnership’s financial terms.

For financial institutions, the commercial significance lies in connecting credit-risk information with behavioural and device-level fraud signals. Traditional credit assessment may indicate whether an applicant or company can meet its obligations, but it does not necessarily establish that the individual initiating a transaction is genuine or controls the identity being presented.

The partnership therefore addresses a separate but increasingly important part of the lending and onboarding process. Earlier detection can help institutions distinguish higher-risk activity before advancing funds, opening an account or approving a payment, while limiting the need to subject every legitimate customer to additional manual checks.

Creditinfo chief executive Satrajit Saha said the companies were beginning with fraud because of the immediate need among clients, while viewing the partnership as having a potentially broader application across digital financial services.

Equifax UK and Creditinfo are also exploring whether the capabilities could subsequently be extended into Africa and the Middle East. That remains a possible future expansion rather than part of the European rollout announced this week.

The agreement reflects the growing overlap between credit bureaus, identity intelligence and financial-crime technology as lenders seek to automate customer acquisition without increasing their exposure to digitally enabled fraud.