Equifax 2000 Annual Report Download - page 3

Reporting our annual results is always a
good reminder of how great a business we
have at Equifax. Strategically, it is a critical
one – enabling and securing millions of trans-
actions in the global marketplace every day.
It’s a highly dynamic and diverse business,
with products and services that constantly
lead to innovation and new opportunity.
And, it’s an extremely profitable business –
generating $455 million in operating income
on revenues of nearly $2 billion in 2000. All of
these achievements are accomplished while
adhering to a set of virtues and values in
which nothing is more important than the
integrity of our information and our sources,
the propriety of their use and respect for the
personal privacy and rights of the consumers
and businesses concerned.
Equifax’s strength today reflects the consis-
tent execution of four growth strategies:
• Geographic expansion that has extended
our reach from the U.S. and Canada to
18 countries in less than 10 years.
• Leveraging investments in our proprietary
databases to develop and deliver progres-
sively more value-added products, from
traditional credit reports to card processing
to complex decision-making applications
to Internet identification authentication
methodologies.
• Product and industry expansion that has cre-
ated a revenue diversification beyond the
traditional banking base to span multiple
industries, such as telcos, card processing,
retailers, utilities, automotive and financial
services, and to new markets, such as bro-
kerage, insurance, direct-to-consumer and
U.S. commercial reporting products.
• Technological innovation that has capital-
ized on the most efficient and effective
means of delivering products and services
around the world.
These strategies have served Equifax well
since the mid ‘90s and continued to do so in
2000. It was another record year – the best
in history.
Revenues were up 10.9 percent, operating
income rose 9.9 percent and earnings per
share increased 8.4 percent.
Quality That Translates Into Growth
Nowhere was this more true than in the core
Information Services operations. Consider the
performance of one of its most established
product lines, Credit Marketing Services. This
business, which provides prescreening and
portfolio management for credit card issuers,
grew revenues by 28 percent as a result of a
gain in market share. How? In one word:
Quality. This was confirmed in a recent cus-
tomer survey conducted by an independent
research firm. According to survey respon-
dents, Equifax holds a solid leadership posi-
tion in overall quality driven by innovative
products and services, quality of databases
and superior customer service. And this
quality translates directly into true value for
the Company as reflected in the impressive
level of growth throughout many areas of
Information Services during the year.
TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS
002