Equifax was founded in 1899 as the Retail Credit Company.
The company began in Atlanta, Georgia, as a business collecting and sharing information about consumers’ creditworthiness. It later expanded its operations and changed its name to Equifax in 1979, combining “equity” and “factual.”
Equifax is one of the three major consumer credit-reporting agencies in the United States, alongside Experian and TransUnion. Credit reports from these companies can contain account histories, payment information, inquiries, and public-record data where permitted.
Equifax is not the same organization as FICO. FICO develops credit-scoring models, while credit bureaus collect and supply much of the underlying report data used by lenders and scoring systems.