Equifax, Inc. EFX

Equifax Inc., incorporated on December 20, 1913, is a global data, analytics and technology company. It is a provider of information solutions and human resources business process outsourcing services for businesses, governments and consumers. The Company operates in four segments: U.S. Information Solutions (USIS), International, Workforce Solutions and Global Consumer Solutions. Its products and services are based on databases of consumer and business information derived from various sources, including credit, financial assets, telecommunications and utility payments, employment, income, demographic and marketing data. It uses statistical techniques and software tools to analyze all available data, creating customized insights, decision-making solutions and processing services for its clients. It helps consumers understand, manage and protect their personal information and make more informed financial decisions. It also provides information, technology and services to support debt collections and recovery management. The Company also provides commercial credit risk underwriting and management solutions to online and alternative finance lenders, and commercial finance and leasing companies.

The Company provides payroll-related and human resource management business process outsourcing services in the United States. It operates in four global regions: North America (the United States and Canada), Asia Pacific (Australia and New Zealand), Europe (the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal) and Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay). It maintains support operations in the Republic of Ireland. It also offer Equifax branded credit services in Russia and India through joint ventures, has investments in consumer and/or commercial credit information companies through joint ventures in Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore, and has an investment in a consumer and commercial credit information company in Brazil.

USIS

The Company's USIS segment provides consumer and commercial information solutions to businesses in the United States, including online information, decisioning technology solutions, fraud and identity management services, portfolio management services, mortgage reporting and financial marketing services. Its product lines include Online Information Solutions, Mortgage Solutions and Financial Marketing Services. Online Information Solutions' products are derived from multiple databases of consumer and commercial information that it maintains about individual consumers and businesses, including credit history, credit status, payment history and address information. Its clients utilize the information and analytical insights it provides to make decisions for a range of financial and business purposes, such as whether, and on what terms, to approve auto loans or credit card applications, and whether to allow a consumer or a business to open a new utility or telephone account. In addition, this information is used by its clients for cross selling additional products to existing customers, managing their underwriting and risk management decisions, and authenticating and verifying consumer and business identities. It also sells consumer and credit information to resellers combining its information with other information to provide services to the financial, mortgage, fraud and identity management, and other end user markets. Its software platforms and analytical capabilities can integrate all types of information, including third-party and client information, to enhance the insights and decisioning process to help further mitigate the risk of granting credit, predict the risk of bankruptcy, indicate the applicant's risk potential for account delinquency, ensure the identity of the consumer, and reduce exposure to fraud. These risk management services enable its clients to monitor risks and opportunities and manage their portfolios.

The Company's Online Information Solutions' clients access products through a range of electronic distribution mechanisms, including direct real-time access, which facilitates instant decisions. It also develops and hosts customized applications that enhance the decision-making process for its clients. These decisioning technology applications assist with a range of decisioning activities, including determining pre-approved offers, cross-selling of various products, determining deposit amounts for telephone and utility companies, and verifying the identity of their customers. It has also compiled commercial databases regarding businesses in the United States, which include loan, credit card, public records and leasing history data, trade accounts receivable performance, and Secretary of State and Securities and Exchange Commission registration information. It offers scoring and analytical services that provide additional information to help mitigate the credit risk assumed by its clients. The Company's Mortgage Solutions products, offered in the United States, consist of specialized credit reports that combine information from the three consumer credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian Group and TransUnion LLC) into a single merged credit report in an online format, referred to as a tri-merge report. Mortgage lenders use these tri-merge reports in making their mortgage underwriting decisions. Additionally, it offers various triggering services designed to alert lenders to changes in a consumer's credit status during the underwriting period and securitized portfolio risk assessment services for evaluating inherent portfolio risk.

The Company's Financial Marketing Services products utilize consumer and commercial financial information enabling its clients to effectively manage their marketing efforts, including targeting and segmentation; to identify and acquire new clients for their products and services; to develop portfolio strategies to minimize risk and maximize profitability; and to realize additional revenue from existing customers through effective cross selling and upselling of additional products and services. These products utilize information derived from consumer and commercial information, including credit, income, asset, liquidity, net worth and spending activity, which also support various Online Information Solutions' products. These data assets develop the understanding of consumer and business financial potential and opportunity, which can further drive value decisioning and targeting solutions for its clients. It also provides account review services, which assist its clients in managing their existing customers and prescreen services that help its clients identify new opportunities with their customers. Clients for these products primarily include institutions in the banking, brokerage, retail, insurance and mortgage industries, as well as companies primarily focused on digital and interactive marketing.

International

The Company's International segment includes its Canada, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America business units, provides products and services similar to those available in the USIS operating segment but with variations by geographic region. In Europe, Asia and Latin America, it also provides information, technology and services to support debt collections and recovery management. It also offers specialized services that help its customers manage risk in their consumer portfolios. It also maintains support operations in the Republic of Ireland, Chile and Costa Rica. It provides information, technology and services to support debt collections and recovery management in Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America. Its European operation provides information solutions, marketing and personal solutions products. Information solutions and personal solutions products are generated from information that it maintains and include credit reporting and scoring, asset information, risk management, identity management and authentication services, fraud detection and modeling services. These products are sold in the United Kingdom with a limited set of information solutions products sold in Portugal and Spain. Its commercial products, such as business credit reporting and commercial risk management services, are available in the United Kingdom, with a limited set of information solutions products sold in Portugal and Spain. Marketing products, which are similar to those offered in its Financial Marketing Services business unit, are primarily available in the United Kingdom and in Spain.

The Company's Asia Pacific operation provides consumer and commercial information solutions products, marketing products and personal solutions products. It offers a range of products, generated from credit records, including credit reporting and scoring, decisioning technology, risk management, identity management, authentication and fraud detection services. It also provides information, technology and services to support debt collections and recovery management. Additionally, it provides a range of consumer and commercial marketing products generated from credit information databases, including business profile analysis, business prospect lists and database management. The countries in which it operates include Australia and New Zealand. Its Latin American operation provides consumer and commercial information solutions products, marketing products and personal solutions products. It offers a range of products, generated from credit records that it maintains, including credit reporting and scoring, decisioning technology, risk management, identity management, authentication and fraud detection services. It also offers various commercial products, which include credit reporting, decisioning tools and risk management services, in the countries it serves. Additionally, it provides a range of consumer and commercial marketing products generated from its credit information databases, including business profile analysis, business prospect lists and database management. The countries in which it operates include Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. The Company offers various products in Canada, including credit reporting and scoring, consumer and commercial marketing, risk management, fraud detection and modeling services, identity management and authentication services, together with its decisioning products that facilitate pre-approved offers of credit and automate a range of credit decisions.

Workforce Solutions

The Company's Workforce Solutions segment provides services enabling clients to verify income and employment (Verification Services), as well as to outsource and automate the performance of certain payroll-related and human resources management business processes, including unemployment cost management, tax credits and incentives and I-9 management services and services to allow employers to ensure compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Employer Services). Its Verification Services include employment, income and social security number verification services. Its online verification services enable direct third-party verifiers, including various governmental agencies, mortgage originators, credit card and automotive lenders and pre-employment screeners to verify the employee's employment status and income information. It also offers an offline research verification service, which expands employment verification to locate data outside its existing automated database. Employer Services are aimed at reducing the cost to the human resources function of businesses through a suite of services, including assisting with employment tax matters designed to reduce the cost of unemployment claims through claims representation and management and processing and to manage the tax rate that employers are assessed for unemployment taxes; services designed to research the availability of employment-related tax credits (such as the federal work opportunity and welfare to work tax credits and state tax credits), and to process the necessary filings and assist the client in obtaining the tax credit; W-2 management services (which include initial distribution, reissue and correction of W-2 forms); paperless pay services that enable employees to electronically receive pay statement information, as well as review and change direct deposit account or W-4 information; integrated electronic time capture and reporting services; paperless new-hire services to bring new workers on board using electronic forms; I-9 management services designed to help clients electronically comply with the immigration laws that require employers to complete an I-9 form for each new hire, and onboarding services using online forms to complete the new hire process for employees of corporate and government agencies. In addition, it provides software and services to employers to assist in compliance with the (ACA) through partnerships with government agencies.

Global Consumer Solutions

The Company's Global Consumer Solutions segment provides products to consumers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, enabling them to understand and monitor their credit and monitor and help protect their identity. It also sells consumer and credit information to resellers combining its information with other information to provide direct to consumer monitoring, reports and scores. Global Consumer Solutions include Equifax Complete, ID Patrol, Credit Watch and Score Watch monitoring products. Consumers can obtain credit file information about them and Equifax or FICO credit scores. Equifax products also offer monitoring features for consumers concerning about identity theft and data breaches, including credit report monitoring from all three bureaus, Internet and bank account monitoring, lost wallet support, and the ability to lock and unlock the Equifax credit file.

The Company competes with Experian Group, TransUnion LLC, LifeLock, Credit Karma, Acxiom, Harte-Hanks, infoGROUP, Fair Isaac Corporation, Dun & Bradstreet, Cortera, Verify Job System, First Advantage, Mercer, Towers Watson, Oracle, Silk Road, ADP, Ceridian, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Tableau, Visier, Corporate Cost Control, Thomas & Thorngren and Employers Edge.