Equifax Board Raises Dividend, Sets $100 Million for Share Repurchase

Atlanta, April 30, 1997 -- The Equifax Board of Directors today announced it had raised the company's dividend payment and authorized an increase in the amount of corporate funds available for the repurchase of Equifax shares.

The announcements were made at the company's annual shareholders' meeting at the High Museum of Art, during which shareholders re-elected five members to the Board of Directors, including the company's chairman and its CEO, and reappointed Arthur Andersen as the company's auditors.

The Board of Directors approved an increase in the quarterly dividend from 8.25 cents per share to 8.75 cents per share, or 6.1%. The dividend will be payable on June 13, 1997, to shareholders of record May 23, 1997. Dividends have increased 17 out of the past 18 years, and Equifax now has paid dividends to its shareholders for 84 consecutive years.

The Board increased the funds available for share repurchase by $100 million, raising to approximately $130 million the amount of money currently authorized for this purpose. The $100 million share repurchase authorization represents the continuation of a financial strategy adopted in 1992, when Equifax embraced the Economic Value Added financial measurement system.

"This company is dedicated to creating shareholder value," said Daniel W. McGlaughlin, Equifax president & CEO. "Given our confidence about the company's future and its current financial position, we are willing to move to a more leveraged capital structure to lower our cost of capital without materially impacting our financial flexibility."

Equifax has been quite committed over the past five years in buying back its stock, having spent $470 million since 1992 to acquire about 33 million shares.

During the annual meeting, Equifax Chairman C.B. Rogers, Jr., announced the Board of Directors had earlier approved a direct share purchase plan for shareholders that will be sponsored and administered by SunTrust Bank. The plan enhances benefits to stockholders and offers initial investment in Equifax stock, automatic dividend reinvestment, optional share repurchase and share safekeeping.

The following five directors were re-elected to the board: Rogers; McGlaughlin; Equifax Executive Vice President Derek V. Smith, head of the company's Insurance Services Group; Larry L. Prince, chairman and CEO of the Genuine Parts Co. and a director since 1988, and Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the president of the Morehouse School of Medicine and a director since 1995.

Wednesday's annual meeting was expected to be the last for Equifax Inc. in its current form. The company announced last December it would spin off its Insurance Services Group into a new, independent, publicly traded company. That company will be named ChoicePoint and will be led by Smith. The Financial Services Group then will become the "new" Equifax, with McGlaughlin assuming the post of vice chairman and CEO and Thomas F. Chapman rising to the posts of president and chief operating officer.

Chapman today is the executive vice president in charge of the Financial Services Group.

Equifax hopes to complete the spinoff of Insurance Services this summer, but must await a ruling from the IRS declaring the distribution of stock to be a tax-free dividend to shareholders.

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) is the leading provider of information services that help grant credit, authorize and process credit card and check transactions and insure lives and property. Established in 1899 in Atlanta, Equifax today employs 14,000 people throughout North and South America, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Revenues for the 12 months ended March 31, 1997, totaled almost $1.9 billion.