Part III: Business Units Deliver for ‘The New Equifax’

This article is the final in a series

IN ITS FIRST INVESTOR DAY since 2012, Equifax senior leaders discussed how the company is executing on its EFX2023 Strategy, introduced the company's new Long Term Financial Framework and capital allocation plan, and detailed how the Equifax Cloud™ is driving record new product innovations and growth as it moves beyond its credit bureau roots.

Workforce Solutions

“Over the past few years we have delivered very strong year-over-year revenue growth. But even with that base, we still believe we have room to achieve continued 13% to 15% annual growth across our new long-term financial framework,” said Rudy Ploder, president of Equifax Workforce Solutions, the company’s largest and fastest-growing business. 

Workforce Solutions is expected to be the driver of 5 percentage points of Equifax total organic growth in its Long Term Financial Framework, or almost 60% of Equifax’s organic growth. Fueled by that growth, Workforce Solutions is also expected to account for the majority of Equifax revenue at a point within the next several years.

“We’re continuing to build out the Workforce Solutions Data Hub with new types of data that are opening up expanded use cases, said Ploder. “That Data Hub prominently features The Work Number database, which is the industry-leading, centralized commercial repository of income and employment information in the United States.”

Bolt-on M&A is also playing a role in Workforce Solutions’ growth. One recent acquisition, Appriss Insights, deepens Equifax’s penetration into the $5 billion U.S. talent acquisition market and the $2 billion U.S. government social services delivery market. It bolsters the Workforce Solutions Data Hub with new types of data that can help save lives, prevent fraud, and keep communities and workplaces safe. 

Eight acquisitions totaling nearly $3 billion in cost were completed by Equifax to date in 2021, spanning multiple Equifax business units. Along with Appriss Insights, others include: Kount, provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven fraud prevention and digital identity solutions; HIREtech, a technology-focused human capital management and employer tax incentive firm; Health e(fx)®, a provider of Affordable Care Act services; AccountScore, a banking and transaction analytics company; and Teletrack®, a U.S. provider of alternative credit data.  

U.S. Information Solutions

Another key driver of Equifax revenue growth is the U.S. Information Solutions (USIS) business unit, which is helping businesses “Say Yes More” to their customers, find new customers, and offer them frictionless and personalized experiences. USIS is positioned for a 6%-8% long-term growth framework一better than what the unit has historically delivered. 

Sid Singh, president of USIS, said the business unit is leveraging the power of the Equifax Cloud to drive comprehensive, differentiated and proprietary data sets across three major lines of businesses一risk, marketing and identity一that deliver actionable insights.

“We want to be a leader in Digital Identity. Only Equifax has the unique ability to combine the 32 billion annual digital signals we acquired through our Kount acquisition with our core information to enable smarter e-commerce, which is a $3 trillion market,” said Singh. “Our differentiated data acquisitions are also giving us market share gains in the commercial B2B market一another growth vector.”

USIS has a diversified portfolio across markets and plans to diversify further. The business unit sees growth opportunities in automotive, e-commerce, fintech and BNPL. “USIS will continue to be a substantial driver of overall Equifax growth,” Singh said, “delivering 2 percentage points of Equifax total growth in our Long Term Financial Framework, or approaching 25% of our organic growth.” 

International

When it comes to international markets, Lisa Nelson, president of International, said leveraging the Equifax Cloud is critical to driving new product innovation and revenue across markets. International, delivering 7%-9% topline growth in the Equifax Long Term Financial Framework, will continue to be a strong contributor to overall Equifax growth. 

By optimizing its cloud-based global technology framework, Equifax is able to drive relevant, market-focused innovation. It is also able to scale and adapt for the specific needs of the countries in which it operates. At the same time, the International team can focus on bringing more Equifax enterprise strengths into international regions.

“In our largest region–APAC–and in our largest country business there–Australia–commercial is our biggest line of business. We work with Australian customers who want to lend or provide goods to businesses on credit. Property and construction is a major industry there, and one with extensive regulations. As a result, organizations count on us to help them with ‘know your customer,’ anti-money laundering, and other compliance requirements in that space.” 

Nelson said Equifax’s Australian consumer business is also a powerhouse. “It is on an accelerated growth trajectory as we’ve incorporated positive credit data into our analytics in response to changes to the country's credit reporting system, which now considers positive credit behavior in addition to ‘negative’ details such as bankruptcy and loan defaults,” she noted.  

In Europe, the UK is Equifax’s largest business. Debt management is the company’s biggest line of business there, which includes collections, analytics and recoveries for private and public sector customers, Nelson said. In Canada, “we drive consumer, commercial, fraud prevention and ID verification solutions across multiple market segments for many of the biggest companies in the country. We may be the market leader in Canada, but the team is focused on keeping our challenger mindset sharp."

Nelson mentioned that LATAM is another region where Equifax maintains market leadership. “International CAGR is just under 2% over the prior five years. We will drive more consistent and higher percentage growth moving forward and our cloud transformation will help us achieve that.”

Forward-Looking Statements

This article contains certain forward-looking information, including information related to our long-term financial framework, to help you understand Equifax and its business environment. All statements that address operating performance and events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, including statements relating to future operating plans and results, our financial and business strategy, improvements in our IT and data security infrastructure, expected financial and operational benefits, synergies and growth from our technology transformation and acquisitions, changes in U.S. and worldwide economic conditions, and similar statements about mortgage and financial markets, our outlook and our business plans are forward-looking statements. We believe these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in our 2020 Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of such risks and uncertainties, we urge you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.