Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Equifax Inc.
One of the three nationwide US consumer credit bureaus, an Atlanta company that began in 1899 as the Retail Credit Company and now sells credit files, income and employment verifications, fraud and identity tools and analytics to lenders, employers, governments and consumers. It is best known for two things: the September 2017 disclosure that hackers had taken the personal data of ~147 million Americans through an unpatched web server, settled in July 2019 with the FTC, the CFPB and the states for up to ~$700m; and The Work Number, a database of payroll records bought with TALX in 2007 that turned a commodity bureau into a higher-margin verification business. Under Mark Begor, CEO since April 2018, Equifax spent ~$3bn rebuilding its technology on the cloud, grew revenue from ~$3.4bn (2017) to ~$6.07bn (2025), and in 2025–26 found itself on the opposite side of FICO in a fight over who prices the mortgage credit score.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1899 in Atlanta, Georgia, by brothers Cator and Guy Woolford as the Retail Credit Company (company history); renamed Equifax in 1975 (company, verify year)
- Founders
- Cator Woolford and Guy Woolford, who first compiled customer creditworthiness lists for Atlanta grocers and merchants (company history)
- Headquarters
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Ownership / structure
- Equifax Inc., NYSE: EFX, an S&P 500 company. Its US credit-reporting arm, Equifax Information Services LLC, is a "nationwide consumer reporting agency" under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and is supervised by the CFPB as a larger participant in consumer reporting
- Leadership
- Mark W. Begor (CEO since April 2018; previously at Warburg Pincus and GE Capital); John Gamble (CFO, long-serving, verify current title); Jamil Farshchi (Chief Technology Officer; previously Chief Information Security Officer from 2018) (company, verify current roles)
- Segment
- Data & ratings: consumer and commercial credit information, employment and income verification, identity and fraud, analytics
- Business units
- Workforce Solutions (The Work Number verifications plus employer services): ~$2.58bn of 2025 revenue. US Information Solutions (USIS) (credit files, mortgage reports, scores, marketing and fraud data): ~$2.08bn. International (Canada, UK, Australia, Latin America including Brazil's Boa Vista, Europe): ~$1.41bn (FY2025 10-K)
- Financials
- Revenue ~$6.07bn (2025, +7%); net income attributable ~$660m; diluted EPS $5.32 (FY2025 10-K). Q3 2026 revenue ~$1.69bn (+10%); 2026 revenue guidance cut in October 2026 to a ~$6.66bn midpoint on mortgage weakness (company, reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Retail Credit founding (1899) and the 1970s FCRA reckoning; the three-bureau/FICO system (1989) and VantageScore (2006); TALX and The Work Number (2007); the 2017 breach; the 2019 FTC/CFPB/states settlement; the Begor cloud and security rebuild (2018–25); Kount and Appriss (2021); the 2022 coding error and 2025 CFPB order; the 2025 FICO pricing fight
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1899
Retail Credit Company and the FCRA Reckoning
Founding / regulatory response and rebrand
1989
FICO Scores the Three Bureaus and VantageScore
Partnership (FICO score distribution, 1989) / launch (VantageScore joint venture, 2006)
2007
TALX Acquisition and The Work Number
Acquisition
2017
Data Breach of 147 Million Americans
Failure (cyber breach)
2018
Begor Cloud and Security Transformation
Restructuring / technology rebuild (leadership change)
2019
FTC CFPB and States Breach Settlement
Regulatory settlement
2021
Kount and Appriss Acquisitions
Acquisition (bolt-on series)
2025
CFPB Order on Disputes and the Coding Error
Failure (data accuracy) / regulatory settlement
2025
FICO Pricing Fight and the Mortgage Score
Pricing change (competitive response)