Verisk to Sell Financial Arm to TransUnion

Global data and analytics provider Verisk is selling its Financial Services business to information and insights company TransUnion, the owner of Neustar, for $515m.

Verisk Financial offers competitive studies, predictive analytics, models and advisory services for financial institutions, payments providers and retailers worldwide. Its Argus Information & Advisory Services division delivers proprietary competitive portfolio performance insights sourced from a consortium of financial institutions, which TransUnion says complements its own ability to help clients understand consumer behavior. Verisk Chairman, President and CEO Scott Stephenson says the sale will enable his company to focus on its core growth engines, while unlocking value for shareholders.

Following TransUnion's acquisitions of data firm Neustar and identity protection specialist Sontiq, and the sale of its healthcare business, the firm says the latest acquisition provides data sets for credit and debit card accounts, and demand deposit account behavior.

Commenting on the deal, Steve Chaouki (pictured), President of US Markets and Consumer Interactive at TransUnion, said: 'As consumers continue to digitize their financial behavior, the addition of Verisk Financial will augment our existing data and analytics capabilities, complementing our insights and benchmarking solutions. Together, our enhanced capabilities will help our respective customers accelerate their growth by allowing them to make better - and faster - decisions driven by a holistic 'full wallet view' of how consumers are using their accounts'.

Web sites: www.transunion.com and www.verisk.com .