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TIGHTER CREDIT CONDITIONS REQUIRE CAREFUL DEBTOR MANAGEMENT

Equifax enhances its Debtor Management Solutions to aid tracing

London, 21st July 2009 - Leading credit information and debtor management solutions provider, Equifax, has responded to the challenge facing all sectors of the consumer credit marketplace with a new set of enhancements to its Locate tracing tool which forms an integral part of its Debtor Management Solutions.

Laurence Hamilton, Sales Director, Equifax Consumer Information Solutions, confirmed the importance of the new enhancements to Equifax Locate: "Our goal is to help companies operate the best tracing strategies in the most efficient way, whilst acknowledging the heightened regulatory and media focus on treating customers fairly. Mistracing is highlighted as an issue for the sector. The latest enhancements to Equifax Locate are therefore designed to tackle this head-on. The extra data helps debt collectors go through the process of reasonable customer identity validation while the enhanced financial data provides a one stop shop for all lenders in their recovery activities."

Businesses using Locate will benefit from four enhanced tools:

• Tackling debtor validation - ID Plus has been designed to help verify if a debtor is at the provided address. Utilising Equifax's extensive experience in identity verification, it analyses the number of accounts opened and closed at the address by the debtor to build a picture of likely residency and, therefore, reduce the chance of mistracing. Accounts will also be shown by sector, providing lenders with the best overview of the strength of their account at the property and therefore the likelihood of recovery. Combined with a residency report, this will give lenders a detailed picture of activity at the address to make validation as effective as possible.
  
  
• Identifying movers - A National Change of Address (NCOA) flag, supplied by the Post Office, will inform lenders if a debtor may have moved without notification other than the request of mail redirection, giving a very quick and clear picture that other data sources need to be looked at for tracing.
  
  
• Fuller financial insight for better recovery - Access to full Credit Reference Reports at both the trace and collections stages, including Equifax Insight data where the company is a member of the closed user group, will provide a powerful picture of the debtor's financial position. This will enable lenders to apply the most appropriate strategy to collections activity from the earliest possible stage.
  
  
• A picture of assets - Land Registry valuation data is also included in the enhancements, providing lenders with intelligence on the last time the property was sold and at its price. Combined with other financial data, this will give lenders a picture of how much equity is left in a property as well as indicate if the debtor is a property owner or renter.

Roxburghe (UK) Ltd, one of the leading debt collection agencies in the UK has been using Equifax Debtor Management Solutions since March 2009. Peter Chamney, Trace Division Manager, commented on the latest enhancements: "We started utilising Equifax in March 2009 as one of our tools in the trace arena and we have been very impressed with the service. It is clear that Equifax has excellent industry knowledge backed up by brilliant products which have helped compliment our Trace Division. Our Equifax Account Manager continues to work closely with us, is very helpful and is always looking to provide solutions."

ENDS

For further press information please contact: Margot Tomkinson, Cecile Stearn, Jenny Staniforth or Wendy Harrison at HSL on 020 8977 9132 / Fax: 020 8977 5200 or Email: margot@harrisonsadler.com