TOUCHSTONE FINANCIAL ANALYTICS LAUNCHES ID THEFT PROTECTION PACKAGE FOR HIGH NET WORTH CLIENTS

Equifax ID theft products 'packaged' to give financial services product providers added value for high wealth individuals/h3>

London, September 2012 - Leading wealth product and IFA intelligence specialist, Equifax’s Touchstone Financial Analytics, has created a new package of ID theft protection tools for financial services providers to offer to their clients.

Focusing on the higher identity fraud risk of high net worth individuals, Touchstone is utilising Equifax’s proven Identity Theft services, already extensively used in the consumer marketplace, to enable providers to expand their client offering. The new Identity Protection proposition, white-labelled in the brand of the provider, can either be used to ‘add value’ to a company’s reputation or create an extra revenue stream.

Geoff Greensmith, Strategic Development Director, Equifax, Touchstone Financial Analytics, explains why this is an important service for financial services product providers. “The harsh reality is that identity fraud is on the increase. The latest figures from the UK’s Fraud Protection Service, CIFAS, show nearly a 20% rise, year on year, in identity fraud for the period of January through to May. There is no doubt that affluent individuals are more likely to be targeted by fraudsters.

“We believe this provides an important opportunity for financial services providers to offer ID protection services to their clients which will differentiate them from the competition. Delivered through a web portal in their own brand, life, pension, mortgage and other financial services providers can offer the Equifax ID theft alerts and credit reports either as an added value to enhance the customer relationship, or as an extra revenue stream. And crucially, by adding this service to their product set, they will be able to give their clients the peace of mind that their personal data and identity is being safe-guarded.”

The wealth of consumer credit data used by Equifax for its ID theft services is accessed for the new Identity Theft Protection tools being introduced by Touchstone Financial Analytics. Providing clients with alerts to any changes in their credit data as well as monthly ‘no news is good news’ reports, the service will enhance a provider’s brand reputation as well as provide more opportunities to engage with their clients.

“We are confident that this new white-labelled ID protection solution will give providers a powerful competitive edge, demonstrating a proactive approach to identity protection and a commitment to enhancing the range of services they offer” concluded Geoff Greensmith.

To find out more, customers can contact Touchstone on 01236 722 000 or email touchstone@equifax.com. For more information about Equifax Credit Data and Identity Protection please visit http://uk.partner.equifax.com/touchstoneidprotection

Keep updated via Twitter (@My_Touchstone) and LinkedIn ( http://www.linkedin.com/company/www-mytouchstone-co-uk )

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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: equifaxbtobteam@harrisonsadler.com

About Equifax

Equifax is a global leader in consumer, commercial and workforce 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 or has investments in 17 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500® Index. Its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. For more information, please visit www.equifax.com.

Touchstone Financial Analytics and IXI

Touchstone is the UK’s leading provider of strategic IFA intelligence to financial product providers, delivering powerful benefits to its users. It operates a shared investment product data exchange with information provided by over 90 of the UK’s leading financial services companies. It also operates the MyTouchstone database which is powered by the collective sales data of 77 major product providers, fund managers and platforms and inputs from thousands of IFAs to help IFAs understand how they perform compared to the other IFAs in their post area and across the UK.

Equifax Inc acquired US wealth data specialist, IXI, at the end of 2009. The IXI Corporation has been directly-measuring consumer wealth in the U.S. for the past 15 years.

The unique combination of Touchstone Financial Analytics and IXI is set to bring an unparalleled understanding of consumer wealth and purchase behaviour to the UK for the first time.