Services-Consumer Credit Reporting, Collection Agencies · GA · CIK 33185
Equifax provides global data, analytics, and technology solutions for businesses, governments, and consumers, including HR services and fraud protection
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What Changed
Risk factors · Feb 20, 2025 → Feb 19, 2026
435 added · 280 removed between the two most recent 10-Ks. The risks a company starts — or stops — disclosing are often the story.
Newly disclosed
The decrease in other income, net in 2024 was primarily due to the gain on fair market value adjustment of our investment in BVS due to our acquisition of BVS in the third quarter of 2023 that did not recur in the same period of 2024, as well as a gain on the sale of an investment in 2023 that did not recur in 2024.
The increase in 2025 as compared to 2024 is primarily due to higher people costs which was primarily due to higher incentive plan costs, as well as higher litigation expense, an accrual for a settlement associated with the resolution of four related class action lawsuits and increased depreciation and amortization of capitalized internal-use software costs.
The goodwill balance at December 31, 2025, for our six reporting units was as follows: December 31, 2025 (In millions) Workforce Solutions $ 2,574.1 USIS 2,006.2 Asia Pacific 1,349.8 Latin America 532.0 Europe 189.6 Canada 94.0 Total goodwill $ 6,745.7 Valuation Techniques We performed a quantitative assessment for our Asia Pacific reporting unit to determine whether impairment exists from the most recent valuation date due to the size of the cushion.
For the 2025 annual goodwill impairment evaluation, the discount rate used to develop the estimated fair value of the Asia Pacific reporting unit was higher than the discount rate used in 2024 but was within the same range between 10.0% and 11.5%.
The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the account or disclosure to which it relates. 56 Goodwill impairment test for the Asia Pacific reporting unit Description of the Matter At December 31, 2025, the Company’s goodwill was $6.75 billion and the goodwill attributed to the Asia Pacific reporting unit was $1.35 billion.
Local currency revenue increased 19% in 2024, driven by growth in Latin America from the BVS acquisition, completed in the third quarter of 2023, as well as local currency growth in Latin America, Europe and Canada.
We will continue to monitor the performance of this reporting unit to ensure no interim indications of possible impairment have occurred before our next annual goodwill impairment assessment in December 2026.
We projected revenue growth in 2026 for our Asia Pacific reporting unit in completing our 2025 impairment testing based on planned business initiatives and prevailing trends exhibited by this reporting unit.
The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) opened an enforcement investigation against our U.K. subsidiary, Equifax Limited, in October 2017 in connection with the 2017 cybersecurity incident.
The increase was primarily due to revenue from the BVS acquisition, which occurred in the third quarter of 2023, as well as local currency growth in Argentina.
("BVS") acquisition, completed in the third quarter of 2023, as well as local currency growth in Latin America, Europe and Canada.
The increase is primarily due to higher people costs which was primarily due to higher incentive 35 plan costs, as well as higher litigation expense and an accrual for a settlement associated with the resolution of four related class action lawsuits.
No longer disclosed
In particular, legislative activity in the privacy area may result in new laws that are applicable to us and that may hinder our business, for example, by restricting use or sharing of consumer data, including for marketing or advertising purposes, limiting our ability to provide certain consumer data to our customers, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence and machine learning, including the use of algorithms and automated processing in ways that could materially affect our business, or which may lead to significant increases in the cost of compliance.
For example, in October 2024, the CFPB finalized a rule regarding personal financial data rights and open banking pursuant to Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act that governs the practices of data providers, third parties authorized to access consumer data and data aggregators.
For example, our reputation with consumers and other stakeholders and our customer relationships were damaged following the cybersecurity incident in 2017, resulting in a negative impact on our revenue for a period of time.
Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, MDL No. 2800 (Consumer Cases), and the investigations of the FTC, the CFPB, the Attorneys General of 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and the NYDFS (collectively, the “Consumer Settlement”) relating to a material cybersecurity incident in 2017.
For example, in Europe, the GDPR, which includes extensive regulations for certain security incidents, could result in fines of up to 4% of annual worldwide “turnover” (a measure similar to revenues in the U.S.).
For example, as a result of a prior material cybersecurity incident, we lost certain key certifications which caused certain customers and business partners to stop or pause doing business with us and temporarily limited our ability to win new business.
For example, we have announced our commitments to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the achievement of which relies, in large part, on the accuracy of our estimates and assumptions around the availability and cost of renewable energy sources and technologies, the availability of suppliers that can meet our sustainability and other standards, and other factors.
For example, the Canadian and Australian governments have initiated reviews of their consumer privacy laws, and several U.S. states have introduced varying comprehensive privacy laws modeled to some degree on the CCPA and/or the GDPR.
Consumer MDL Litigation and certain federal and state government investigations arising out of a material cybersecurity incident in 2017.
Available Information Detailed information about us is contained in our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and other reports, and amendments to those reports, that we file with, or furnish to, the SEC.
Because our products and services involve the storage and transmission of personal information of consumers, we are routinely the target of attempted cyber and other security threats by outside third parties, including technically sophisticated and well-resourced bad actors attempting to access or steal the data we store.
Further, the transition of our applications and systems infrastructure to cloud-based technologies may expose us to additional cyber threats, as most of our data has migrated from legacy Equifax systems to cloud-based solutions hosted by third parties.