Experian has revealed its UK and Ireland credit monitoring business is expected to continue to decline in the year ahead.

Last year, Experian made credit scores free to access and launched CreditMatcher, a credit card comparison tool, as part of a wider bid to reposition its consumer services offering.

However, in its preliminary results for the year ended 31^st March 2017, the company admitted the scale of its new offers was not yet sufficient to offset declines in its traditional credit monitoring subscription services.

Despite this news, Experian said early signs were encouraging and the rate of decline is expected to moderate somewhat in the second half of the year.

The company has attracted 1.7 million free customers since the offer was launched.

"As we look ahead, our sector is vibrant,” said Brian Cassin, CEO of Experian Finance.

“Clients are seeking new ways to combine and analyse vast quantities of data to drive better business outcomes and consumers want to better understand and protect their financial status.

“This plays to our core strengths and is opening up many new opportunities for Experian.

“Over the next 12-18 months, we will continue to innovate and are introducing a wave of new products to bring fresh thinking and new services to meet this demand.”

In the UK and Ireland, organic revenue increased 1%, which the company said reflected a robust performance in business-to-business.

This partially served to offset a decline in direct-to-consumer.

During the year, Experian introduced services helping lenders to pre-qualify consumers for credit, credit software which assists with account opening and customer management and new fraud prevention products.

The company also secured its first client wins for fraud detection and prevention platform CrossCore.