Equifax Inc.

Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting and data analytics company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia that collects and aggregates information on hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses worldwide, and uses that data and analytics to provide credit information, identity verification, fraud prevention, workforce verification, marketing, and decisioning products to financial institutions, employers, government agencies, and consumers. Equifax is one of the three large consumer credit bureaus in the United States alongside Experian and TransUnion.

The company was founded in 1899 in Atlanta as Retail Credit Company by Cator and Guy Woolford and was renamed Equifax in 1979. Equifax expanded internationally over the following decades and is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker EFX. In 2017 the company disclosed a major data breach affecting personal information of approximately 147 million United States consumers; subsequent settlements with the United States Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and several states required Equifax to fund consumer redress and enhance its data-security posture.