EQUIFAX TAKES THE MYSTERY OUT OF DEALING WITH NEW AND SMALL BUSINESSES
New, enhanced business reports provide opportunities for growth
London, 1st March 2007 - Equifax, the leading consumer and business information expert, is revolutionising business credit risk management with the launch of its enhanced business reports. Business information blended with personal data will now be available through Equifax business reports, providing a more complete, predictive and reliable picture of a business' financial stability and growth potential. Critically, this powerful new data will help businesses of all sizes trade more confidently with new start-ups, sole traders and non-limited companies.
Gary Powell, Head of Business Information Services at Equifax comments: "Historically, the business community has been reluctant to deal with new start-ups, sole traders and non-limited companies because there is a lack of information available about them on which to make confident lending decisions. This has impacted on these businesses, impeding their ability to secure investment to develop, and often resulting in their failure. At the same time, larger organisations are missing out on opportunities to trade with a new and potentially profitable customer base".
With their consent, directors' and business owners' personal credit data can now be taken into consideration when their business is being assessed as a potential business partner. This data, when combined with Equifax business information, gives a much greater insight into an organisation's financial situation, its stability and growth potential, and will enable more informed and confident decisions.
"The power of Equifax's consumer credit data can now be used to create new opportunities for start-ups and small businesses in the UK, while reducing risk for more established businesses", confirmed Powell. "We believe the directors of small companies will be happy for potential partners to view their personal credit information if it makes the difference between them winning a contract or obtaining new finance, or not.
"Until now it has been very hard for small businesses to develop working relationships with larger companies which, in turn, has prevented them from demonstrating that they are a good credit risk and therefore stopped them getting better credit limits. It's a vicious circle! But our new enhanced reports mean large and small businesses can build relationships with each other, encouraging growth in the UK economy as a whole. They also mean that big companies will be able to expand their supplier and customer base to include small companies, with the minimum risk of bad debt".
