Fueling Small Business Opportunities with the Commercial Financial Network

ACCORDING TO THE EQUIFAX NOVEMBER SMALL BUSINESS LENDING INDEX (SBLI) THE U.S. ECONOMY ENTERED 2025 ON A HIGH NOTE with solid Q3 growth of 3.1% and a reasonably strong expected growth rate of 2.4% in Q4 to round out 2024. While the current outlook is optimistic, it is possible that there could be fewer rate cuts and tighter lending conditions in 2025 than anticipated a few months ago. 

For lenders, this means more than the traditional financial data is needed to help make decisions about lending to small businesses. This is one of the reasons Equifax created OneScore for Commercial, to more accurately predict delinquencies through in-depth modeling by utilizing the power of the commercial credit database from Equifax, trended data, public records, firmographic and non-financial information. The commercial credit database that helps create the score includes data from the Commercial Financial Network (CFN) - a shared data exchange, managed by Equifax, that gives members access to commercial payment performance data along with unique data about business identity and ownership, business registrations, and company firmographics.. This network fuels the creation of analytic insights that can help expand the opportunities for small businesses in the U.S. 

The CFN is led by an advisory board made up of representatives from contributing companies. The CFN Advisory Board helps guide Equifax in its efforts to help expand American small businesses’ access to capital and services. The Advisory Board provides direction in a number of areas including data governance and product innovation, and offers a perspective on industry challenges and trends and insights into possible new sources of differentiated data. At their most recent meeting, the Advisory Board elected their officers for 2025, selected by their peers:

• Lucy Karam, Board President, First Horizon

• Wayne Pass, Board Vice President, Mitsubishi HC Capital America 

• Jill Molitor, Board Secretary, Stearns Bank

"These CFN Advisory Board officers will contribute invaluable knowledge and insights that will benefit our members and the small businesses they serve," said Sal Hazday, General Manager and SVP of U.S. Commercial Business at Equifax. "We look forward to collaborating with the Advisory Board to strengthen the CFN platform and improve the quality of services and financial offerings available to small businesses.”

Created in 2016, the CFN is one of the largest databases of commercial credit data. It has over 1,300 contributors, including more than a quarter of the Fortune 50 and three of the largest commercial banks providing over 115 million business account records. To learn more about the Commercial Financial Network, please visit https://www.equifax.com/business/data-network/commercial-financial-network/.

(c) Equifax Inc. 2025. All Rights Reserved. The information presented herein is sourced from Equifax internal records and is to be used for general informational use only.