Equifax Unveils "Decision Power(sm) - Retail"

Speeds Access to Credit Inside the Store

ATLANTA, April 2, 1996 -- Equifax Financial Services today introduced a new service that allows retailers to instantly extend credit to consumers purchasing goods with checks.

Known as DECISION POWER (sm) - RETAIL, the system delivers pre-screened credit decisions in "real time" for retail customers, eliminating the hassles of long application forms, processing delays and embarrassing credit turndowns. The system is customized to match each store's criteria for granting credit.

"This is an important application of technology that has produced a real advantage for retailers," said Thomas F. Chapman, executive vice president and group executive, Equifax Financial Services. "DECISION POWER - RETAIL converts check writers into credit users within seconds, automating the credit granting process and saving everyone time."

The DECISION POWER - RETAIL process begins at the point of sale when a customer pays for merchandise at the cash register with a personal check. The consumer's driver's license number, used to authorize the check, is keyed into a terminal. Authorized checks are automatically pre-screened for the retailer's proprietary credit card. Customers meeting the retailer's pre-established credit criteria are offered a pre-approved card right on the spot. The whole process takes less than 15 seconds.

"Customer loyalty is a critically important factor in this day and age of retail competition," observed Thomas G. Gordon, senior vice president, Equifax Check Services. "With DECISION POWER - RETAIL, consumers gain easy access to credit and retailers gain the opportunity to build customer patronage and loyalty by easily extending a credit option.

"DECISION POWER - RETAIL also adds tremendous value to the marketing strategies that many private-label card issuers are pursuing," Gordon continued. "By combining the face-to-face benefits of instant credit with the pre-approved criteria of a pre-screen mailing, DECISION POWER - RETAIL delivers prequalified candidates to the retailer while they are in the store."

DECISION POWER - RETAIL is a new variant of the original DECISION POWER developed by Equifax for the U.S. banking industry. Introduced in 1994, DECISION POWER is an automated marketing tool that allows banks to verify applicants for new checking accounts and to conveniently offer checking account applicants a variety of pre-approved credit, debit card products and other financial products and services while the applicant is inside the branch opening a new checking account.

Equifax Check Services is part of Equifax Payment Services, a leading provider of check verification/guarantee and card processing services that guarantee more than $12 billion dollars worth of checks in 1995. Equifax (NYSE:EFX), committed to Global Information Leadership in the Information Age, is the leading provider of information services that help grant credit, authroize and process card and check transactions, insure lives and property and control healthcare costs. Established in 1899 in Atlanta, E quifax today employs 14,000 people throughout North and South America, the United States and continental Europe. Revenues for the 12 months ending December 31, 1995, exceeded $1.6 billion.