Equifax is a consumer credit reporting agency which is one of the three largest American credit agencies.
Equifax was founded in 1889 in Atlanta, Georgia as Retail Credit Company (RCC). By 1920 the company had offices throughout the United States and Canada.
The company’s original business was to make reports for insurance companies when people applied for new insurance policies, including life, auto, fire, and medical insurance. All the major companies of the time used RCC.
In 1975 the company changed its name to Equifax in the midst of a public backlash against credit reporting companies for the misuse of personal information.
100 years after the founding of the company, it phased out insurance reporting and began to focus on commercial credit reports, and later, identity verification, payroll and human resources services, credit monitoring for consumers, and credit scores, credit histories, and risk analysis to lenders.
Today Equifax is a publicly traded company, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol EFX. Equifax is a member of the S&P 500 and is #895 in the Fortune 1,000. Equifax had $2.3 billion in revenue in 2013.
On September 7, 2017 Equifax announced a HUGE security breach affected 143 million Americans (this number is actually larger than the entire adult US population)! The hackers were able to obtain social security and driver’s license numbers. Equifax has created a website – equifaxsecurity2017.com, specifically for this data breach. All Americans are encouraged to see if they are effected and take appropriate action (freeze your credit or sign up for a monitoring service).
Headquarters for Equifax are still located in Atlanta, Georgia.
Equifax is a consumer credit reporting agency which is one of the three largest American credit agencies.
Equifax was founded in 1889 in Atlanta, Georgia as Retail Credit Company (RCC). By 1920 the company had offices throughout the United States and Canada.
The company’s original business was to make reports for insurance companies when people applied for new insurance policies, including life, auto, fire, and medical insurance. All the major companies of the time used RCC.
History
In 1975 the company changed its name to Equifax in the midst of a public backlash against credit reporting companies for the misuse of personal information.
100 years after the founding of the company, it phased out insurance reporting and began to focus on commercial credit reports, and later, identity verification, payroll and human resources services, credit monitoring for consumers, and credit scores, credit histories, and risk analysis to lenders.
Today Equifax is a publicly traded company, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol EFX. Equifax is a member of the S&P 500 and is #895 in the Fortune 1,000. Equifax had $2.3 billion in revenue in 2013.
On September 7, 2017 Equifax announced a HUGE security breach affected 143 million Americans (this number is actually larger than the entire adult US population)! The hackers were able to obtain social security and driver’s license numbers. Equifax has created a website – equifaxsecurity2017.com, specifically for this data breach. All Americans are encouraged to see if they are effected and take appropriate action (freeze your credit or sign up for a monitoring service).
Headquarters for Equifax are still located in Atlanta, Georgia.
