Q4 2025 Equifax Inc Earnings Call

February 4, 2026

Are in a listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference. Please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note. This conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Trevor Burns SVP of investor relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thanks and good morning. Welcome to today's conference call. I'm Jennifer burns with me today. Are Mark, begor, chief executive officer and John gamble, Chief Financial Officer.

Today's call is being recorded. And the architect of the recording will be available later today in the IR, calendar section of the news and events Tab and our industrial relations website.

Speaker #1: Good morning and welcome

During the call, we will make things reference certain materials that can also be found in the presentation section.

Of the news and events tab at our IR website.

these materials are labeled for Q 2025 earnings conference call

Also room making certain 4 looking statements including first quarter and full year 2026 guidance.

To help you understand Equifax and its business environment.

Trevor Burns: Thanks, and good morning. Welcome to today's conference call. I'm Trevor Burns. With me today are Mark Begor, Chief Executive Officer, and John Gamble, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded, and an archive of the recording will be available later today in the IR Calendar section of the News and Events tab at our Investor Relations website. During the call, we will be making reference to certain materials that can also be found in the Presentation section of the News and Events tab at our IR website. These materials are labeled Q4 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Also, we're making certain forward-looking statements, including Q1 and full year 2026 guidance, to help you understand Equifax and its business environment. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations.

Q4 2025 Equifax Inc Earnings Call

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Q4 2025 Equifax Inc Earnings Call

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Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 at 1:30 PM

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Trevor Burns: Certain risk factors may impact our business are set forth in our filings with the SEC, including our 2024 Form 10-K and subsequent filings. During this call, we'll be making we're referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EPS, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margins, and cash conversion, which are adjusted for certain items that affect the comparability of our underlying operational performance. All references to EPS, EBITDA, EBITDA margins, and cash conversion are references to non-GAAP measures. These non-GAAP measures are detailed in reconciliation tables, which are included with our earnings release and can be found in the Financial Results section of the Financial Info tab at our IR website. Also, in the fourth quarter, Equifax incurred a charge of $30 million related to a settlement associated with a resolution of inquiry disputes related claims.

Mark Begor: USIS delivered 10% revenue growth and expanded margins 70 basis points to 35.2%. Diversified markets or non-mortgage revenue grew 5%, which is the highest USIS organic revenue growth performance since 2021 in our non-mortgage space. Mortgage revenue grew 22% and was up low double digits, excluding the impact of FICO price increases as they gained share across both pre-qual and pre-approval solutions. International delivered constant dollar revenue growth of 6% and expanded EBITDA margins almost 100 basis points. The international team made strong progress towards cloud completion, which we expect to complete by the middle of this year. International also delivered 12% vitality last year, which drove good revenue performance despite weak Canadian and UK debt management end markets. Driving new product innovation is the core to our long-term growth strategy.

Mark Begor: In 2025, with 90% of our revenue in the new Equifax Cloud, we pivoted from building to leveraging the cloud and accelerating our use of AI and new products. Equifax had another very strong year of NPI rollouts, with record 2025 Equifax Vitality Index of 15%, which was 500 basis points above our long-term 10% goal and equates to about $900 million of new product revenue during the year. USIS and EWS worked together to launch new products that deliver USIS credit files and leverage alternative data, including the TWN Indicator income and employment data in mortgage, card, and auto markets, with plans to launch similar products in the personal loan space early this year. These unique to Equifax products deliver credit, identity, and income and employment data in a single solution, are gaining traction with mortgage and card lenders.

Mark Begor: This strong outperformance was most significant in Workforce Solutions, where we saw strength in mortgage as well as in government, which was above our expectations, and also in USIS, where the strength was principally in mortgage. Both USIS and EWS saw stronger mortgage markets that were better than our October framework. USIS mortgage hard credit inquiries were down about 1%, but were better than our expectations of down high single digits. For the quarter, US mortgage revenue represented about 20% of Equifax revenue. Diversified markets or non-mortgage constant dollar revenue growth grew over 6% in the quarter, slightly above our expectations and guidance. This was principally driven by broad-based, strong execution in Workforce Solutions, driven by stronger auto, card, and debt services revenue growth, which was up double digits.

Mark Begor: Up low double digits, and talent, which was up high single digits. USIS Diversified Markets revenue was consistent with our expectations, while international was slightly weaker than expected, principally reflecting end market weakness in Canada and European debt management, despite very good performance in Brazil and Australia. On an organic, constant currency basis, revenue growth of 9% was over 200 basis points above the midpoint of our October framework, which gives us strong momentum as we move into 2026. Equifax delivered Q4 EBITDA of $508 million, with an EBITDA margin of 32.8%, which was slightly below our October guidance. While EWS and USIS EBITDA margins were above expectations, and international was at the top end of our October guidance range, Equifax's overall margins were slightly lower than guidance due to higher incentive compensation, which impacts our corporate expenses.

Mark Begor: Government had a strong quarter, building off the third quarter performance, with revenue up low double digits. Government revenue performed very, very well, despite a tough comp, with continued strong state-level penetration, and we had minimal impact on EWS revenue from the federal government shutdown in the quarter. Talent Solutions revenue was up high single digits in the quarter. In October, we discussed weaker hiring volumes that continued throughout the fourth quarter. Despite the weaker hiring macro, Talent Solutions continued to outperform their underlying markets, driven by penetration, pricing, and higher hit rates from record additions and new products, including new solutions from the Total Verified Data Hub, which includes trended employment data as well as incarceration, education, and licensing data. Consumer lending continued to perform very well, with revenue up very strong, mid-double digits in the quarter from double-digit revenue growth in Ploans, auto, and card.

Mark Begor: EWS mortgage revenue was up about 10% in the quarter, delivering improved sequential trends from new products, record growth, and pricing. Employer services revenue was up 2% in the quarter, despite continued weakness in our I-9 and onboarding businesses from the weaker hiring market. In Workforce Solutions, EBITDA margins of 51.3% were driven by operating leverage from higher than expected revenue growth in the quarter. As mentioned earlier, Twin record additions continued to be strong again in the fourth quarter, with 209 million active records, up 11%. Our 120 million total current records were also up 9%, which represented 105 million unique SSNs. At 105 million individuals with current records in Twin, we have a long runway for growth towards the 250 million income-producing Americans.

Mark Begor: In Q4, EWS signed agreements with 5 new partners, bringing our total to 16 new agreements signed during 2025. Turning to Slide 8, we continue to see momentum in our discussions in Washington and with state agencies to support their plans to implement the new Titan OB3 social service eligibility requirements. Given our strong value proposition from Twin on the speed of social service delivery, case worker productivity, and accuracy of income verifications, Equifax is uniquely positioned with our differentiated Twin data assets and new solutions to help state agencies increase efficiency and strengthen program integrity, particularly with SNAP and CMS. Partnering with our customers, we're already bringing new innovative solutions to federal and state agencies, supporting the government's goal of reducing the $160 billion of social services fraud, waste, and abuse.

Mark Begor: In Q4, we launched our new continuous evaluation solution for SNAP, which identifies changes in recipients' incomes above program levels, enabling states to reduce SNAP error rates, where nearly 80% of states today are above the 6% federal threshold. Given the strong value proposition, we've already contracted with a few states in Q1 on our new continuous evaluation solution, with many more actively in discussions to utilize this new product from Equifax. We expect this focus on program integrity from OB3 will be a positive tailwind for our EWS government business in 2026 and 2027 and beyond. While OB3 related deals and revenue will likely be in the second half of the year, and in 2027, the increased engagement represents positive opportunities in the near term to penetrate states not using Twin today for social service delivery.

Mark Begor: We're also continuing our positive engagement in DC with multiple federal agencies to support their efforts to strengthen social service program integrity. There are several new incremental opportunities that would drive positive future growth for EWS. This current environment is a unique opportunity for our government vertical, with the big focus on improper social service payments. EWS has significant opportunities for medium and long-term revenue growth, supporting government programs in the big $5 billion government TAM for Equifax, which gives us confidence in our ability to deliver government revenue growth above the EWS long-term revenue growth framework of 13% to 15%. Said differently, we expect our government vertical to be our fastest growing business across Equifax going forward. Turning to slide 9. USIS revenue was up a strong 12% in the quarter, driven by strong mortgage outperformance.

Mark Begor: In 2026, we expect to see share gains in USIS mortgage pre-qual, pre-approval, and hard credit inquiry products from the adoption of our new mortgage credit file with Twin Indicator and Twin Total Income products. Financial Marketing Services, our B2B offline business, was up low single digits in the quarter. USIS's Consumer Solutions business had another very good quarter, up high single digits from strong customer acquisition trends in our consumer direct channel, as well as strong growth in partner revenue. Our USIS B2C business remains on offense, entering into an expanded relationship with Gen Digital, providing our differentiated data, their Engine by Gen marketplace. Later this year, we'll also leverage Engine by Gen to power- to provide myEquifax consumers in the US with access to expanded and personalized financial solutions.

Mark Begor: Turning to slide 11, proprietary data is the foundation of our highly differentiated products and analytical and decisioning capabilities, through which our customers generate unique solutions to grow their businesses and mitigate risk. OnlyEquifax can access our unique and proprietary data sets. The application of advanced AI and traditional IT-based analytical techniques allow us and our customers to develop solutions that are reliant on our OnlyEquifax proprietary data. As AI advances, we are confident we are able to generate more effective analytical solutions based on our proprietary data at accelerated pace, as well as make these advanced analytical solutions available to more customers. Slide 11 provides more perspective on the percentage of Equifax global revenue that is based on data that's proprietary and not available or broadly accessible.

Mark Begor: In total, about 90% of Equifax revenue is generated through the direct sale or through derivative products generated from our proprietary only Equifax data. Within the US, almost 90% of our revenue is generated from our proprietary data sets, such as the credit file and with our twin income and employment database, which is our most unique and valuable data asset. Within USIS, proprietary data assets include the consumer credit file, along with our alternative consumer credit assets like NC Plus, DataX, Teletrack, and IXI Wealth Data Exchanges. These USIS assets are proprietary to Equifax and only accessible by Equifax. Within our international businesses, proprietary data includes consumer and commercial credit, as well as other proprietary data exchanges, like our financial services broad exchange in Canada and our Australia income verification exchange, with data approaching 50% of the employment market.

Mark Begor: Over 90% of international revenue is generated from proprietary-only Equifax data. The proprietary and unique nature of our data is a huge asset for Equifax in this new AI environment, as only Equifax can utilize the data for customer solutions and new products using our advanced AI capabilities. Turning now to slide 12, AI is fundamentally changing how we operate, from technology to data analytics, products, operations, and across Equifax. Our $3 billion cloud investment provides the technology platform that enables us to leverage AI capabilities across every corner of Equifax. We're driving AI deep into the organization, with almost 90% of our team leveraging Google Gemini AI in their day-to-day roles. AI is not just an add-on at Equifax; it's now part of our DNA and how we operate every day.

Mark Begor: Our cloud transformation is now delivering measurable returns across software development, operations, and business processes, from lowering operational risk, from fewer service disruptions that increases customers' trust and capacity innovation, capacity for innovation, and creating predictable, repeatable deployments and reducing human error, with 90% of our infrastructure as code. We are also getting more software output from the same engineering investment, with about 1,900 Equifax software engineers using AI coding tools that have generated over 1 million lines of code using AI. As we scale adoption across our broader developer population, these gains compound, translating to accelerated product delivery, faster response to market opportunities, and improved return and capacity inside of our R&D and technology spend. Our Agentic AI platform is accelerating and standardizing the development, deployment, monitoring, and governance of AI agents across Equifax.

Mark Begor: This is a strategic differentiator for Equifax that reduces duplicative efforts, enables build once, deploy everywhere leverage across Equifax. We're continuing to advance our state-of-the-art machine learning capabilities that allow our data scientists to rapidly build higher predictive models and deploy them quickly, as well as develop capabilities to automate model deployment, to make models available faster for our customers. Our advanced model engine also allows our data scientists to build models using Equifax portfolio of proprietary and patented AI algorithms. AI is also extending into Equifax's operations or back office. In the first part of 2026, we're focusing on improving our customer and consumer call centers with AI-enabled and AI-assisted call processes. Our AI call center transformation demonstrates our ability to fundamentally reimagine our labor-intensive workflows, which is a template for broader workforce productivity gains across Equifax.

Mark Begor: This big level of performance improvement demonstrates that our AI strategy is not only scaling, but providing the superior predictive value required to lead in the marketplace. In USIS, we recently launched the Credit Abuse Risk Model, an adverse actionable model that leverages AI to help lenders identify first-party fraud and credit abuse behaviors like loan stacking, particularly where traditional credit scores indicate low risk of the consumer. With this score, lenders can identify pockets of prime consumer applicants with delinquency rates as high as 29 times greater than the overall prime delinquency rate. Our new EFX Cloud Foundation is giving EFX an AI advantage in innovation, new products, technology development, operations, and really across every corner of Equifax. This isn't a vision for the future of AI at Equifax; it's broadly in motion across our business. Turning to slide 13.

Mark Begor: Enabled by our proprietary data and our strong momentum with EFX.AI, we continue to make outstanding progress driving innovation, new products, delivering record 17% new product vitality in Q4 from broad-based double-digit performances across all of our businesses, and record 15% vitality for the entire year. We expect strong double-digit VI to continue in 2026 and be above our 10% long-term goal, leveraging our cloud capabilities to drive new product rollouts using proprietary data and AI, EFX.AI capabilities. Last year, we launched a new twin indicator solutions in mortgage, auto, and card, delivering twin income and employment attributes at no additional cost to our customers, which is a huge differentiator, leveraging our cloud data fabric to create powerful new solutions for our customers.

Mark Begor: In US mortgage, where these solutions were introduced first, we've seen strong adoption with over 1,400 customers accessing these new OnlyEquifax products. We've already seen strong momentum in US mortgage from TWN Indicator, with major mortgage lenders, which will benefit from our new solution in 2026. In auto, we have about 100 customers piloting the new TWN Indicator solution, and we expect accelerating adoption in auto as we move through the year. In card, although earlier in the product launch, we expect to see customer wins in the first half of 2026. Slide 14 provides perspective on the impact on Equifax operating results from the increase in FICO mortgage pricing over the past few years. As a reminder, Equifax profitability is driven by the sale and the value of our unique data that we sell.

Mark Begor: 2026 EBITDA margins are reduced by over 200 basis points by the FICO mortgage royalties we pass through to our customers, with 2025 EBITDA margins also reduced by about over 100 basis points. When we set our long-term financial framework in 2021, we did not anticipate that FICO would have these dramatic price increases, benefiting Equifax revenue, but negatively impacting Equifax reported EBITDA margin rates. As we look at 2026, excluding these FICO mortgage impacts, our mortgage revenue growth at about 7% is inside our LTFF, and our EBITDA margins are expected to expand 75 basis points, which is 25 basis points higher than our 50 basis point long-term financial framework for margin expansion. As we go forward, we plan to share our performance, excluding FICO mortgage royalties, given the substantial impacts on our reported results.

Mark Begor: Turning to slide 15, our guidance assumes US GDP growth consistent with our long-term financial framework of 2 to 3%, and the US mortgage market to be down low single digits in 2026 compared to last year. Internationally, we're expecting economic growth to be weaker than the US, particularly in Canada, the UK, and Brazil. And FX is a positive in 2026 versus last year, benefiting revenue at about 50 basis points in EPS, about $0.02 per share. Our 2026 guidance also assumes that all mortgage scores that are delivered will be FICO scores delivered by the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies, consistent with our mortgage scores volume to date in January. There is still uncertainty around when the FHFA will formally accept Vantage for agency mortgage originations. We felt this was a prudent guidance framework at this stage for 2026.

Mark Begor: USIS mortgage, excluding the impact of FICO scores, will outperform the market by mid-single-digit percentages as we gain share from the introduction of the twin report indicator, twin income qualify, and our telco utility data and mortgage products. And again, this assumes no incremental revenue or margin from VantageScore conversions in our 2026 guidance. Diversified markets or non-mortgage constant dollar revenue growth at the midpoint of 7% is up over 100 basis points versus 2025, driven by stronger growth in EWS and USIS. With weaker overall market conditions in international markets, we are expecting revenue growth in growth rates in 2026 to be about consistent with 2025. John will provide more detail in a minute on our revenue growth at the BU level in his more detailed comments around our 2026 framework.

Mark Begor: For lenders and consumers, VantageScore 4 provides stronger score performance at least half the cost, which is a winning combination for the mortgage industry and consumers. As a reminder, the consumer data from the credit file is the basis for mortgage approvals by lenders in the GSEs, not the scores. Equifax is a provider of not only credit data, but also unique telco and utility data with income and employment data, and remains well positioned to continue to deliver value to mortgage industry participants. Interest in the mortgage industry to move to VantageScore is extremely high. We have over 200 lenders testing our free VantageScore with pre-qual and pre-approval products through mortgage hard pull products, with over 40 principally non-GSE lenders now in production with only the VantageScore.

Mark Begor: We are already providing Vantage historical data going back to 2008, 2009 to market participants, both directly and through advanced analytical capabilities via our Ignite for Mortgage platform, to aid our customers in the conversion to Vantage. We're providing a free VantageScore with the purchase of any FICO Score across all industry segments, mortgage, auto, card, personal loans, and insurance. In mortgage, we believe that when the FHFA, Fannie and Freddie, clarify the requirements for using VantageScore and begin full acceptance for mortgage pre-review and underwriting, we'll see migrations to Vantage accelerate. The conversion to Vantage is a significant opportunity to drive margin expansion and EPS growth for Equifax. As a reminder, our 2026 guide assumes no conversion to VantageScore in the US mortgage market.

John Gamble: Diversified Markets Verification revenue is expected to be up about low double digits, again, consistent with Q4 2025, from government revenue growth, particularly in the second half, when new requirements begin to be implemented, as well as in auto, card, and personal loans. Talent revenue is expected to continue to outperform an expected weak hiring market. Strong TWN record growth, new products, and continued growth in both pricing and penetration, particularly in government, will continue to drive Verification Services. Employer Services is expected to grow low single digits in 2026. Again, despite the expected weak hiring market, Employer Services revenue is expected to decline in the first quarter year-over-year. USIS revenue is expected to be up mid-teens%, and EBITDA margins are expected to be 32.4% to 32.9%.

John Gamble: Excluding the increase in FICO mortgage score pricing in 2026, USIS revenue growth would be up mid-single digits at the bottom of our USIS long-term framework of 6% to 8%. USIS EBITDA margins would be 39.6% to 40.1%, up 100 basis points at the midpoint year-over-year, reflecting leverage on high-margin data sales and disciplined cost controls. USIS mortgage revenue, excluding the benefit of FICO mortgage price increase, is expected to grow at mid-single digit percent rates against a mortgage market that is expected to be down low single digits year-over-year. The growth principally from share gains as customers increasingly adopt our twin and NC-plus-based solutions, as well as price increases. Including the impact of FICO mortgage score price increases, USIS mortgage revenue is expected to be up over 35%.

John Gamble: Diversified Markets revenue is expected to improve versus 2025 and grow mid-single digits year to year, benefiting from accelerating NPI, including Twin Indicator and total income-based products, and share gains as they accelerate leveraging Ignite AI capabilities. International constant dollar revenue growth is expected to grow mid-single digits at a lower rate than 2025, with EBITDA margins at 28.6% to 29.1%, up approaching 50 basis points at the midpoint from 2025. Revenue growth is below the long-term financial framework for international and 2025 growth rates, principally from weaker economic growth in Canada and the UK. Corporate expense in 2026, excluding DNA, is expected to be up low single digits versus 2025. We believe that our guidance is centered at the midpoint of both our revenue and EPS guidance ranges.

Mark Begor: Our new cloud native infrastructure is already providing competitive advantages of always-on stability, faster data transmission speeds, and industry-leading security for our customers. And importantly, Equifax resources and technology product DNA are leveraging the new Equifax Cloud for innovation, new products, and growth. We're using our new single data fabric, EFX.AI, and Ignite, our analytics platform, to develop new credit solutions powered by twin indicators, like in verticals like mortgage, card, and auto, that only Equifax can provide, which is leading to share gains and growth. We're also broadening our product sets in key verticals like government, Talent Solutions, identity and fraud. The Equifax team is fully focused on growth and innovation. Given our strong free cash generation, we are also delivering on our commitment to return substantial excess free cash flow to shareholders.

Yeah, thanks Jeff. Um, you know first off the uh the Equifax moat around data is very high, you know, whether it's our twin income and employment data, our other Credit Data, as you know, our data is proprietary and over 90% of our Revenue comes from proprietary data. And what that means is No 1 else can access it. You know, when you think about Credit Data or or in your question income and employment data, the income and employment data comes from, either payroll processors or individual companies and that's also walled off. So the only way to access that is in a permissioned basis or in an aggregated basis like we have, it's a proprietary. So we think that there's a real moat around it from a data perspective with regards to using AI in Workforce Solutions. Um, we're doing a lot around our employer business where we uh, as you know, um deliver regulated services to HR managers things like I9 uh validations uh for new employees, unemployment claims management. Um, work opportunity tax credit, we see big opportunities

With regards to the Workforce Solutions, you know, those ebita margins north of 50% are very attractive. Um, you know, we think a lot about continuing to invest and we are in Workforce Solutions to maintain those margins because they're so accretive broadly to Equifax with, uh, in our long-term framework ews growing faster than the rest of Equifax. And with those 50% Ebon margins, you've got a lot of accretion, you know, to, uh, our margin rate in a, and they generate a lot of ebit dot dollars. So we are continuing to invest there. We, we talked a little bit in our comments about some of the new products we're investing in particularly in government, you know, like the continuous monitoring solution. Um, twin indicator is a new Solution. That's a product between ews and USIS. So, you know, investing in new products, investing new tech investing in some of the, um, AI capabilities inside of Equifax and Workforce Solutions on how they deliver um, Solutions like in the employer business, you know, as part of the Investments. Uh, and you know we continue to invest in uh, acquisition of Records.

There's a lot of energy in the marketplace with our customers, you know, number 1, adopting, our free Vantage score for doing their own testing internally about the, the Vantage score versus the FICO score which is actually well known. You know, as you know, Vantage is widely widely adopted uh, in uh, non- mortgage, um, space. Um, you know, so we've got good adoption there. We've got the, you know, a couple of lenders that are non- agency, you know, a handful of lenders that have made the conversion because of the cost savings and performance, you know, and gone to full Vantage they're smaller mortgage lenders for sure but uh, you know, they're not the f**** and Freddy, um, you know, conforming mortgages. So it's really a matter of uh, when does that work complete? Uh, you know, by both agencies, you know, we're collaborating with them, you know, around that and is it, is it unfolds we think there's, you know, energy in the marketplace to, uh, you know, Drive conversions once that gets green lighted and is a and you're available to submit a mortgage, you know, using uh, Vantage. We also wanted to be clear in the presentation around.

Getting closer and closer to having to hit those error rate targets. Uh, is impacting the state's behavior, and you know, is there a large season, like a large quarter for you for government? Um, like is their seasonality that we should be aware of and, uh, just anything in terms of momentum, in that part of the business. Thanks. Yeah. It's a, it's a great great question, Tony. It's 1 that, you know, we're quite energized about and we're putting a lot of effort into giving this, uh, unique environment that really started a year ago, when President Trump came in and there was a large Focus or an increased focus at the federal level. And now, at the state level around the improper payments and ob3 that was passed in July last year. You know, it was a big Catalyst for that and what it's resulted. I think we've been clear that a lot of the ob3 specific requirements. You know, will have uh we believe Revenue impact for us, meaning positive Revenue in the second half of the year and into 27 when some of those were

Requirements, actually, you know, have a a start date in the, you know, in the States. But what a uh the ob3 is driven and this focus on improper payments and some of the focus on error rates or the increased focus and penalties from the error rates above, the federal thresholds is a a very, very broad-based engagement with each of the states that we haven't seen really in the history that I've been here, meaning the states are focused on it. They know that they have challenges, if they don't, you know, take actions to drive some of the Integrity in the programs and we've just seen an uptick in commercial activity. And I think you've seen the business, uh, you know, really, uh, have some sequential Improvement in the third. And again, in the fourth quarter, which we're pleased with that was above our expectations of what we characterize, as kind of normal State, penetration commercial activity, that is, is probably, uh, you know, driving, uh, you know, some increased commercial discussions or commercial engagement, you know, because of the focus on improper payments,

Yeah it's it's first off it's more. Um and we're the only place you can get scale data you know at a proprietary basis in the set of data sets that we have. You you think about our credit files proprietary um to you and Experian. Also have 1, their proprietary. No 1 else has the scale of that data and no 1 else can get to it. Obviously a bank is going to have or a financial institution, their own internal data for their clients but when they're trying to acquire new clients and they're also trying to understand what kind of debt does uh their uh consumer have in other financial institutions you have to come to 1 of the 3 of us for that, add to it. Uh, the cell phone utility database that we have is only Equifax data X teletrack only Equifax, the ixi data set, you know, it's proprietary at only only Equifax. And then, of course, the twin database, you know, if you want to get payroll data, you're going to come to Equifax or you're going to have to go to an individual on a consumer consented basis. Companies, don't share payroll data.

You know, just uh, you know, broadly, uh, in a, in a, in a way that scales. So that's another proprietary data set. So, your question, you know, around the data macro. There's no question that this is for years. There's been a macro of all of our customers, wanting more data, um, in order to broaden their decisioning. And as you point out, some of them are using their own Ai and ingesting, our proprietary data assets. Um, but uh, we're increasingly using our AI to deliver those Solutions, um, because we have the scale data assets. So you know, the moat around our data is very high. Um, it can only be accessed by Equifax or by our customers, you know uh when they're buying the data from us, you know it's just it's got a it's got a very high mode around it and you know we think the combination of that mode around the data in our investment investments in Equifax, AI capabilities, we mentioned on the call, we've got 400 explainable AI patents,

July, um, to bring the Vantage score in, and we think they'll be conversion and it'll obviously take time, but there's a definitely, a lot of enthusiasm there with regards to, you know, marketing and costs. Uh, you know, we we're, we're obviously, you know, working with our customers to support them. I think, you know, part of the marketing effort was to offer the free Vantage score. Um, you know, with every paid FICO score not only in mortgage, but in the other spaces. So, you know, that's 1 that, uh, you know, we're putting commercial effort behind, um, as well as marketing effort. And, you know, I, of course, uh, any of our expenses associated with that, which are, you know, I would characterize as a not meaningful. But, uh, um, you know, our in our, uh, in our p&l and in our, in our guide that you wouldn't, you shouldn't expect us to do like, TV advertising or something. But, you know, we're, uh, we're clearly, um, incenting, our commercial teams, um, to work with our customers, you know, around this opportunity to use the Vantage score at, uh, you know, half the price of the, uh, the FICO score and, and really drive that conversion as soon as it becomes available and working hard.

Hard to, you know, to prepare our customers. We're also delivering, you know, data on Vantage score, performance, you know, going back to 0809 uh, to our customers. So uh the risk teams can look at the performance, you know, which is uh, you know, very clear, you know, in the data sets that we have. Uh, so that's another element that we're doing to help support our customers as they, uh, you know, evaluate the Vantage and, you know, as John pointed out, you know. Um, from a, um, you know, a guide perspective, we, we put guidance in place. Assuming there's no conversion. We thought that was prudent because we don't know when it's going to be greenlighted, you know, by the fhfa. Um, and if there is conversion, it's only upside to us. There's not any downside to it and you know, fundamental to that is that we sell the credit file that's used to calculate the FICO score and we sell the credit file that's used to calculate the Vantage score and you know of course as we said a couple times in this call it's well understood when we sell FICO you know that ten dollars is a full pass, throw with no no margin on it um but we make full margin on.

So you're talking about, we we indicated excluding the fight, the, the pass through of the FICO Revenue. We would be up mid single digits, so you should compare that against a market that's down. Um, low single digits, so doing that math. That's that's high single digits is right type of uh, outperformance relative to the market, which we think is relatively good and relatively good relative to the other segments in which we operate. So that reflects certainly um some price increase it. Also reflects share gain that we're driving and we expect to see from Twin indicator and the other only Equifax products that Mark would have already talked about and there is also a little bit of a headwind built in their related to what's going on with triggers, right? So as as trigger, legislation comes in our expectation is you'll see increase in hard pulls, but some reduction in soft pulls and that could have a slight impact on our Revenue. So we did the best. We could to bake all those things in, but we think we think growing in that, you know, mid to high single-digit range X. The FICO score is is a really nice.

Sure. So on your last Point, generally we're talking about, we're talking about hard inquiries. And that's generally the way we guide and I admittedly we did indicate that we think we're gaining share there. So so that we have to kind of net out the share gain when we're coming up with a, with a view of the market, but our our down low single digits, kind of reflects what we think. Inquiries would be doing absent, the share gain that we're driving, and absent, some of the shift related, to trigger legislation. And, and you know, what's going on with trigger legislation. I'm sure you're familiar with it, right? And we just, we think we're going to see some customers choose to purchase a hard poll earlier in the marketing cycle as opposed to purchasing soft polls since those hard polls. Now cannot be shared with other lenders, um, so that they so that they have an opportunity to Market to the customer that's applying for the loan. So we don't think every every customer is going to do it. We still think there is we've seen growth continue in soft inquiries and prequel and pre-approvals. But we think this legislation is probably going to

Well, certainly in mortgage um you know, mortgage is the largest fee vertical. You know, it's 1 where income and employment is used uh you know, in every origination uh along with credit. Um, and uh, that we've talked many times that, you know, the way the market historically worked is, uh, you know, you pull a credit file up front, but you don't have any visibility of that applicant, you know, is working or what their income and employment, characteristics are because that's typically done later in the process. And that's why we launched the twin indicator, really? Last summer, we're seeing great traction with mortgage Originators. We're offering it, I think, as you know, for free, you know, with our credit file, not only in mortgage, But Otto and card and uh, and uh, we'll do it in P loans, this year also. Um, because it's really going to differentiate. We believe our credit file and drive some credit files, share, you know, particularly in the mortgage space and that prequel application space that'll Aid lenders in their kind of marketing funnel. Um, to really differentiate, you know, what kind of loan or will it will

A consumer, you know, um, close. Um, because they'll now have visibility, you know, around their employment, uh, a range of income for them that they didn't have before. So we're seeing, you know, some really good traction there and what it should result in. And we're seeing some, some beginning traction, there is a share gains. You know, when there's a 1B poll, you know, in the mortgage pre-qualify, we want it to be an Equifax file, because we're offering that differentiated data at no charge, um, which we think will Advantage us from a share perspective and think about that same opportunity, you know in Auto which would be kind of the next, you know, big vertical. And then we're also seeing some Traction in card, you know. Same same reasons, you know, uh, historically, you know, card originations have always been done, just on someone's credit profile.

You know, so it's a very current data set and that that growth penetration is really because of those 3 value props and that hasn't changed, you know, it uh, you know, south of around 700 million of run rate, Revenue a little north of that. In our government, vertical versus the 5 billion dollar Tam. Our commercial teams, focus is uh, you know, on those States and agencies, it's really agencies that are still doing it fully manually. And when you think about a 5 billion dollar Tam and our business, you know, at, uh, you know, less than 20% of that. There's a long runway for growth as we work with the, with the states, to your question around, you know, what are why are? Why isn't it, uh, 3 billion dollar business? You know, we think it will be over time. Um there are challenges around technology around process flow change. Um, and as you point out, um there can be challenges around budgets, you know, in States. Um we deliver a very very high Roi. We deliver a big Roi on caseworker productivity

What changed uh in you know the last call it 12 months is the passing of the ob3 bill that put more teeth into the requirements that the states have to deliver those Social Services. Meaning they have to use more verified data. Um, they've got to do it more frequently today. There's 12 months redetermination that goes to 6 months, you know, in 2027, you know, all those actions are really putting teeth around addressing the 162 billion, um, and it creates opportunity for, uh, Equifax and Workforce Solutions. So, you know, we were pleased to see the um, kind of above expectation. Um, Revenue growth from call it State penetration, that's where it happened in the fourth quarter. There was some of that in the third quarter, and we expect that to continue in 2026 and then you've got, you know, kind of the macro of the ob3 requirements that go into place, you know, later this year and into, uh, 2027 and Beyond, you know, a lot of those conversations are happening now. About how do I get prepared for that?

Yeah, and the first question, uh, you know, we have, uh, you know, modest price increases, uh, you know, if the government vertical um, you know, we don't price is not really a lever for us. We really think more about penetration, uh, you know, in the last year, we've gone to more subscription models in government, in order to, you know, help a new state, um, get used to using the service, you know, and, and really help them in the adoption of our Solutions. So, we don't think about prices being, you know, a big, uh, lever for us in, you know, it's, it's not 1 that, uh, you know, is Central, you know, we we have a multiple levers in Workforce Solutions. It's uh, when you think about government, penetration is such a huge 1, you know, we focus on delivering the right value in return for our customers. Um, product is a big 1 as we roll out, new Solutions. Uh, you know last year we rolled out

About the consumer consented solution. In government, to go after some of the gig, um, uh, individuals who are going after social services, that might have a W2 job and be in our data set, but we don't have the, uh, gig income. So, we've got that in market now. And we talked about our new, uh, you know, uh, uh, monitoring solution, um, that we're rolling out. And we're seeing some real traction with that. So, product is a big 1, and, of course, you know, record editions are, uh, are a, uh, a big positive in this business and you need to work force solutions, you know, when we add new records, and we added 5, more Partners, um, in the fourth quarter and 12 last year, um, in Workforce Solutions, you know that really drives um, higher hit rates. So you've got a lot of levers, you know, for growth with regard to your second question, you know, of the, the buy merge Tri merge. Uh, obviously there's still some noise around that, uh, you know, everyone we talked to, uh, understands whether it's, uh, the mortgage industry, uh, you know, our customers, you know, or, uh, you know, on the hill or, um, with the agencies,

Yeah, so our talent business is really heavily driven by not only our, our twin data which continues to perform well, and we continue to increase penetration, but we also have a broader set of products including an education around incarceration, right? That is that are also expanding. So I think the way we continue to outperform that market which, you know, as you saw VLS, was down low single digits. We grew obviously much stronger than that of up mid to high single digits. So, very good performance on our talent. Business was really driven by continued performance on the team of continuing to build penetration with our income based products. And then also expand consistently our education and other products, um, including incarceration, which also continue to grow. So nice. Nice, very nice performance by the team and a very tough Market.

Mark Begor: Yeah. So our talent business is really heavily driven by not only our, our twin data, which continues to perform well, and we continue to increase penetration, but we also have a broader set of products, including in education, around incarceration, right? That is, that are also expanding. So I think the way we continue to outperform that market, which, you know, as you saw, VLS was down low single digits. We grew obviously much stronger than that, up, up mid to high single digits. So very good performance on our talent business is really driven by continued performance on the team of continuing to build penetration with our income-based products, and then also expand consistently our education and other products, including incarceration, which also continue to grow. So nice, nice, very, very nice performance by the team in a very tough market.

Yeah, FICO is 1 that obviously is just a no margin pass through for us, you know, and it's very sizable now which is why we opted to spike it out and we will do going forward because it's such a big piece of our revenue and and you know, zero calories, you know, and we sell a FICO score, you know, we just pass that through and uh, you know what, we're we're going to do that, you know, the the performance of the business we're pleased with um, you know, we're pleased with uh, you know, our Revenue guide and you know, you know, for 2020 uh you know, 6 with a mortgage Market, that's you know, down slightly again. Um, you know, we had hoped that inflation would come under control and the rates would uh move down. Obviously they've ticked back up which is put some pressure on the mortgage Market. But you know to have a 7% X FICO um guide you know, which is at the lower end of our long-term framework X, the mortgage Market, you know,

% above, you know, our uh, long-term framework of 10% is really good, you know, because that's momentum is we go into 26, you know, those new products and you look at new, some of the new products we're rolling out that a year ago, we weren't talking about with you, we weren't doing because we were still finishing the cloud, you know, like the twin indicator, you know, that is a we think a really powerful solution, we're offering it, you know, at no charge to our customers to drive. Share, gains for our USIS, credit file. And as, you know, the, the next credit file we sell is very high incremental margins. So we're pleased about that, you know, with regards to the margin, you know, X FICO of 75 basis points, you should be pleased about that. We are, you know, that's 50% of our long-term framework of 50 basis points. Uh, you know, that's really positive. It's going to drive double digit EV dog growth and uh, and EPS growth, which is uh, you know, going to drive our free cash flow, you know, we're really uh really pleased about that and that's really driven by the, you know, pure operating leverage that we have with very high fixed cost structure. So our

Mark Begor: And then, you know, there was a question earlier around, you know, kind of the data macro. That's a positive for us, as well as, you know, our ability to use AI to deliver higher performing products and solutions. You know, our customers, you know, from an origination standpoint, are still originating. You know, there's no change. We don't see any, you know, kind of behavior around people thinking about slowdowns or recessions, but they're after more data, which is a positive for us. They're after higher performing scores and models, and we talked about some of the big lifts we're delivering now with our AI-generated, you know, scores and models. And, you know, those become positives for us to, you know, penetrate, you know, in with our customers, because we're delivering higher performing solutions.

Solutions, you know, our customers, um, you know from an origination standpoint are still originating, you know, there's no change there, we don't see any, you know, kind of behavior around people thinking about slowdowns or recessions, um, but they're after more data, um, which is a positive for us. They're after higher, performing scores and models. And we talked about some of, the big lifts. We're delivering now with our AI generated, you know, scores and models. And, you know, those become positive for us to, uh, you know, penetrate, you know, in with our customers, uh, because we're delivering higher performing Solutions. But your, your question on the market is like our customers are strong. Meaning financially, you know, the banks and financial institutions. And uh, you know, broadly, the consumer is in, you know, good shape um, because they're still working in spending. Um so you know, that's a positive force.

You know, we know there's dialogues going on between the CRA resellers and Equifax and the CRA trimmer resellers and FICO. Um, I think FICO talked about that on their call maybe last week. Um, I believe they said that, you know, that they didn't see this happening until maybe the second half. But, you know, meaning that that the uh, resellers um, being prepared to do it going through the approval process Etc. Um, but you know, really we tried to say in our comments earlier that we're kind of agnostic. Um, whether we calculate the score or the tri merge, reseller calculates the score because if they calculate the score, we're going to sell them the credit file, you know, at our full price. Um and then presumably, they're going to have to pay FICO ten dollars for the score. Um, you know, whether they pay the ten dollars to FICO and calculate the score or We Do It. Um, we're kind of agnostic because

You know, the the tri merge resellers um, to uh, you know, help them in ways that make sense. If they decide they want to do it because, uh, there's really no p&l impact to us meaning. And we think about p&l as a as our, uh, ebita, our EPs and our free cash flow. Um, you know, it's neutral to us whether we calculate the score or not and again because of that uncertainty, we opted um to have a guide that said there's going to be no CRA score calculation in 2026 and uh, you know, there's going to be no Vantage conversion, you know. I don't think either of those are true. Um, but it was the kind of the best guide that we could put together and we thought you know putting those scenarios in place for you. Helps you think about, you know, if there is a conversion you know what it means to Equifax and we'll be super transparent, you know, every quarter on what activity we're seeing or not seeing you know, on both of those fronts. Um, you know, so we can, uh, share with you and then you've got enough information. So you can make your own assessments of, uh, you know, how you think it's going to unfold going forward, but you know,

Yeah. So I think John said it and I said it in a different version. Uh, you know, we like our 50 plus percent ebit margins and ews. Um, our goal is to maintain them, you know, in our long-term framework because they're so accretive, you know, from a free cash generation as well as, to overall Equifax, you know, margin, uh, you know, rates, which is so are so powerful and, you know, we're making Investments, um, to keep that Top Line at ews, which is also a creative to Equifax. You know, going, whether it's around new products, you know, new technology, we're investing in AI. I talked about from some of our product delivery and the employer business new products that we're rolling out. So we're going to keep that balance of investing in ews to keep their Top Line, uh, double digit Topline growth over the long term, uh, going while still, uh, balancing maintaining those 50% plus EV down margins for overall Equifax. Obviously, if they're growing faster, that's part of the accretion. It's in our 75 bips expansion this year.

And uh, UK economic kind of macro challenges, um, you know, just to contrast in the UK, we performed well in our CRA business, uh, you know, very strong performance, even in a weak Market, um, the debt management business, where, you know, we do a lot of debt recovery analytics. Um, you know, was under pressure in the UK. Canada is clearly has got a challenge, you know, from the Tariff conversations that's happened. You know, really over the last year, you know, we expect to see, you know, that be pressure for that business but we expect better performance in 26 and 25 out of out of Canada, Australia, fairly stable and we've seen you know good performance in our business there. Um, Latin America, broadly, um, you know, in in in good position. Um, there are some, uh, Brazil economic conditions but, uh, you know, we had, we've had very strong performance in Boa. Vista, you know, our acquisition, we made a couple years ago, you know, is where we're gaining share there. So, you know, we would expect that business to uh, perform

[Analyst] (Huber Research Partners): Great, thank you. My first question, you said several times today, and in the past, that you're agnostic if a FICO score was sold through Equifax or the resellers and so forth. Obviously, you're agnostic because you've raised the price of your credit file for mortgages and the associated fees to offset that, which is fair. I mean, it's must-have data if you want to originate a, a mortgage out there and stuff. I'm curious on two fronts there. What has the reaction been to the price increase, your credit file, a significant price increase there in the mortgage market? What's been the reaction out there? And is there any learnings there about that reaction there, that you could potentially think about raising prices more aggressively in other markets, credit cards or maybe auto, more importantly? That's my first questions. Thank you.

Craig Huber: Great, thank you. My first question, you said several times today, and in the past, that you're agnostic if a FICO score was sold through Equifax or the resellers and so forth. Obviously, you're agnostic because you've raised the price of your credit file for mortgages and the associated fees to offset that, which is fair. I mean, it's must-have data if you want to originate a, a mortgage out there and stuff. I'm curious on two fronts there. What has the reaction been to the price increase, your credit file, a significant price increase there in the mortgage market? What's been the reaction out there? And is there any learnings there about that reaction there, that you could potentially think about raising prices more aggressively in other markets, credit cards or maybe auto, more importantly? That's my first questions. Thank you.

And we haven't in the past and, uh, you know, we've shared that in, in Prior, you know, investor meetings. Um, you know, we passed through the FICO credit score. And, uh, you know, I I would tell you that there's, you know, a lot of, uh, you know, consternation in the, uh, in the marketplace meaning with mortgage, Originators around a FICO credit score going from 495 to 10 bucks, you know, that's just a reality. Um, you know, that's not, you know, we didn't we, we, we didn't take our credit file. Um, price up, anywhere near, you know, uh, in in 100 miles away from that kind of a price increase. So that's really been the focus of the conversation. And you know, what's the learning for us? You know, is we're going to continue to have very modest increases on our credit file going forward. Um, you know, we, we would, we would not do those kind of large price increases and we're, we're, we've not done them in the past.

Writing credit underwriting where we're seeing, you know, Big 10, 15 Point kind of lifts in performance, which is massive. So those higher performing um, scores using more data, you know, from our differentiated data sets deliver higher performance for our customers. So we're seeing share gains and we'd call that, you know, 1 score is 1 of our products that pulls together. All of our differentiated data that we rolled out last year and we're seeing a, a lot of take their. Um, we're also seeing an identity and fraud really the same thing. Um, by ingesting, more identity. And for fraud data assets, um, we're seeing higher, you know, um, hit rates or higher performance rates, on our identity Solutions, our higher Pass rates. Um, so that's been a real positive. So scores and models, you know, really big deal. We talked about some of the additions we're making in our uh, adding AI capabilities, to our ignite analytics platform to make that, you know, more functional, more usable, you know, for large, but particularly medium and smaller lenders, you know, so it's uh, easier to use

And just, as a reminder, again, for probably the fourth or fifth time on this call, um, we're agnostic to that because there's no p&l impact to Equifax, um, or benefit for the customer, you know, for the, uh, trimmer resellers calculating the score. You know, we're going to sell our credit file at the full price to them, um, and then they'll buy the FICO score, presumably for ten dollars, you know, from a FICO and then sell that, once they start doing it. Um, it's hard for me to see what the benefit is of a reseller doing it. But, uh, you know, that's why we put our guide together because there's no indications that that's, uh, you know, um, has any certainty about when it's going to happen. There's also some questions about what kind of approvals, um, would have to be, uh, completed um, by The Regulators, um, around someone else, calculating the score and that likely is means time. But again, just to be crystal clear, we're agnostic. You know, if the, uh, try merge resellers and FICO decide they want to calculate the score, we're cool. Um, it has a

No, thank you. And the second question I had just sort of following up from that. Um, when you produced your, um, long-term framework for USIS, did you assume that you were going to, you know, benefit from an organic growth perspective, from 5o, very significantly, raising prices every year, of course not, um, or not? Okay, of course not. No, you know, this was done back in 2021, you know, when we put that long-term frame in place, I think the FICO score was like, 55 cents. Um, you know, and we expected which they had for kind of the decade before that to them. They would do modest. Price increases, you know, which was in our long-term framework, you know, think about, you know, kind of mid to high single digits. Something like that was in our, in our long-term framework, um obviously that changed dramatically. And that's why we've uh, you know, opted to spike out the FICO impact because it's so significant, you know, in our reported results and, uh, give you better visibility, you know, around the underlying performance, which

Or we think the the underlying data is always the Lynch pin, you can't calculate a score without the data and remember, like Vantage only can calculate the score because we own Vantage, along with you and Experian, we use Advantage algorithm on our data. So like a third-party AI algorithm can't calculate a score because it has no data, um, you know, the only way to do that is to have the access to the data. And obviously, we control, you know, who uses our data and how it's delivered. So, in my view, um, you know, all the data we have only gets more valuable and as, you know, Central to our strategy, is to continue to add more data, um, either, um, organically or through Acquisitions and, you know, we've done Acquisitions of like payet data X teletrack. Um, you know, we've done a number of Acquisitions to add more data into our proprietary data set. And, you know, to me, I think what's fundamentally missing in the market today is that, uh, you know, investors need to understand. You can't use AI without data.

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