Equifax vs H&M (Hennes & Mauritz)

About

Equifax Inc. is an Atlanta, Georgia-based global data, analytics, and technology company — publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: EFX) as an S&P 500 Financials component — providing credit information (consumer and commercial credit reports, scores), employment and income verification, fraud prevention, and analytics through three business units: Workforce Solutions (The Work Number — employment and income verification database with 650 million employee records), US Information Solutions (USIS — US consumer and commercial credit reports and analytics), and International (credit bureaus in 24 countries) through approximately 14,000 employees. In fiscal year 2024, Equifax reported revenues of approximately $5.7 billion (+7% year-over-year) driven by Workforce Solutions' non-mortgage verification revenue growth (tenant screening, auto lending, government social services verification) offsetting continued weakness in mortgage origination verification volumes (lower mortgage market activity reducing income verification demand from mortgage lenders). CEO Mark Begor has rebuilt Equifax after the transformational 2017 data breach (exposing 147 million Americans' SSNs, birthdates, and credit information — the largest US data breach at the time, resulting in $1.38 billion FTC settlement, massive security investment, and significant reputational damage) through the $1.5 billion "EFX2020" technology transformation (rebuilding all Equifax systems on cloud-native AWS infrastructure) that modernized Equifax's data security, analytics capabilities, and product development velocity. The EFX Cloud infrastructure (completed in 2022) enables Equifax to launch new data products within weeks rather than years — creating competitive differentiation versus legacy systems maintained by TransUnion and Experian.