EQUIFAX MARKET REPORTS GIVES CONSUMER CREDIT PROVIDERS A BETTER ‘BIG PICTURE’

Providing crucial benchmarking against competitors for strategic decision-making

London, October 2011 - Leading consumer credit information and risk management company, Equifax, has launched a powerful new tool to give consumer credit providers the ability to benchmark the performance of their customer portfolios against both industry metrics and their competitors. Equifax Market Reports provide ‘real-world’ answers to the questions that all businesses struggle to answer - ‘How are we performing in relation to our competitors and the market?’ and ‘How could we do better?’

Available to members of the Equifax Insight closed user group, Equifax Market Reports have been designed to help financial institutions, insurers, retailers, utilities and telco companies obtain ‘real-world’ answers to performance questions in risk, collections, marketing and finance. Equifax Market Reports tap into a database of around 450 million consumer records contributed by companies and their peers. These give organisations extending credit to consumers an accurate view of their performance in comparison to others operating in their market sectors.

"Through Equifax Market Reports, we are providing organisations with a valuable way to measure their performance against the rest of their market, helping them make informed, strategic decisions," says Elaine Ridgewell, Head of Client Analytics. "Based on Equifax’s extensive consumer credit databases, and completely customised to an individual company’s own market, Equifax Market Reports can identify trends over time at both the account and customer level."

"A bespoke approach means organisations can tailor Equifax Market Reports to their specific business model - but without any need for any additional data or resources, making it cost-effective and quick to implement."

The data is delivered as a dynamic report allowing companies to model different scenarios, without changing the underlying results. Clients choose from over 150 summarised data items against which to benchmark their performance, accessible from a history going back to 2008.

Prior to generating the report, Equifax schedules a half-day workshop with the client to examine objectives and define the benchmark group. Reports can then be generated as a one-off or in a series, for example, quarterly or half-yearly.

Companies can utilise Equifax Market Reports to:

• assess whether their customer acquisition strategy is attracting the right type of customers
• uncover factors that might be leading to customer attrition
• examine whether their arrears diverge from industry norm
• benchmark collections performance against their peer group to understand the impact of different strategies for a better return
• compare financial strength versus the industry, providing an external view to help with stress tests
• focus on new ways to win and retain the best customers

"Equifax Market Reports give a view of how customer portfolios are performing, based on customer data contributed by Insight members" concluded Elaine Ridgewell. "This level of intelligence can make the difference between success and failure, especially in today’s tough market."

An example generic Equifax Market Report can be provided for an organisation to understand the insight it can deliver by contacting 020 7298 3033 or ukmarketing@equifax.com.

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For further press information, please contact: Wendy Harrison, Jenny Thorneywork or Clare Watson at HSL on 020 8977 9132 / Fax: 020 8977 5200 or Email: wendy@harrisonsadler.com

About Equifax

Equifax is a global leader in consumer and commercial information solutions, providing businesses of all sizes and consumers with information they can trust. We organize and assimilate data on more than 500 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide, and use advanced analytics and proprietary technology to create and deliver customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates in four continents and 15 countries, is a member of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500® Index. Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EFX. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.