Credit bureau Equifax raised its annual revenue forecast and reported third-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, helped by a smaller-than-expected drop in mortgage inquiries.
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut of the year in September and expectations of further easing later in 2025 have fueled hopes of lower mortgage rates.
U.S. mortgage inquiries fell seven per cent in the quarter from a year earlier, a smaller decline than Equifax’s expectation of a 12 per cent drop.
The Atlanta, Georgia-based company’s revenue grew seven per cent to US$1.55 billion in the third quarter. Revenue from its workforce solutions unit, the company’s largest operating segment, increased by five per cent to $649.4 million.
Strong demand from government agencies for the company’s employment and income data services offset weakness in the hiring market, driven by federal legislation imposing stricter compliance standards for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid.
Earlier this month, U.S. data analytics company Fair Isaac unveiled a program that lets mortgage resellers calculate and distribute its credit scores directly to consumers.
Equifax’s CEO Mark Begor said the company is expanding its VantageScore 4.0 mortgage credit score offerings “in response to FICO’s aggressive price actions.”
“The pricing action that FICO put in place for 2026, doubling of the price increase, is going to add half a billion dollars of cost to the mortgage industry and consumers,” Begor added.
Equifax shares, which have fallen 9.3 per cent so far this year, were down 0.6 per cent.
The company now expects revenue for the full year between $6.03 billion and $6.06 billion, above average analysts’ estimate of $6.02 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
On an adjusted basis, Equifax earned $252.9 million, or $2.04 per share, in the three months ended September 30, compared with analyst expectation of a profit of $1.93 per share.
(Reporting by Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
