Equifax Check Services Partners with the Greater Greensboro Merchants Association

Merchants Can Handle Out-of-State Checks

ATLANTA, March 5, 1996 -- In a unique reciprocal arrangement, Equifax Check Services is joining the Greater Greensboro Merchants Association and Credit Bureau Inc., to provide check verification and guarantee services to the group's 800-plus member merchants.

The new arrangement will see Equifax Check Services working together with Checkfax of the Carolinas, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Greater Greensboro Merchants Association and Credit Bureau Inc.

Checkfax of the Carolinas maintains verification information for consumers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia that will expand the verification database for Equifax. The Greater Greensboro Merchants, in turn, now will gain the ability to handle out-of-state checks through their access to Equifax Check Services.

The five-year contract allows sales representatives from the Greater Greensboro Merchants Association and Credit Bureau Inc., to sell Equifax's check services in North Carolina.

"This agreement represents a mutually beneficial exchange of service and information, adding intrinsic value to both organizations," said Tom Gordon, senior vice president and general manager of Equifax Check Services. "Partnering with the Greater Greensboro Merchants Association will enable Equifax to deliver additional benefits to the merchants and consumers of North Carolina," Gordon added.

Merchants will have the best of both worlds as Equifax and the Association work synergistically to provide expanded and even higher quality service to members and consumers. Now, area residents who bank elsewhere as well as consumers traveling through North Carolina will have the benefit of writing a check for merchandise at member locations.

"The Equifax Check Services' programs enable us to better serve our merchant association members," said Mike Bumpass, president of the Greater Greensboro Merchants Association. "By being able to accept national checks, our merchants can expand their customer base and increase their sales revenue," he said.

The Greater Greensboro Merchants Association has 160 employees, 15 field sales representatives, 3,800 credit customers and 800 check merchants. The association recently celebrated its 20th anniversary as an Equifax Credit Services Affiliate.

Equifax Check Services, a division of Equifax Financial Services Group, provides check authorization services, and other information-based, point-of-impulse decision solutions to more than 100,000 retail merchants. Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX), committed to Global Information Leadership for the Information Age, is a leading global provider of information services that help insure lives and property, grant credit, authorize and process credit card and check transactions and control healthcare costs.

Established in 1899 in Atlanta, Equifax now employs more than 14,000 people throughout North and South America, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Revenues for the year ending Dec. 31, 1995, exceeded $1.6 billion.