WASHINGTON—Financial services providers are increasingly looking toward technology and cost cutting to compete in a new market fraught with regulatory pressures.
“Looking forward to 2011, the financial services industry will be consumed by regulatory mandates and finding innovative ways to increase revenue. And one thing is certain—change will occur at breakneck speed and the industry will focus on responding,” according to an introduction to the 2010 FinTech 100 list released on Oct. 20.
The FinTech 100 list is a ranking of the top 100 leading technology and service firms to the financial sector, published by American Banker and Bank Technology News.
When financial services address fast-forward needs, technical service providers are on the top of the list. Reliable and consistent information at one’s fingertips is of prime importance, and those on the FinTech list provide the software programs the banks need so urgently.
Case in point is Equifax Inc., a global financial information provider based in Atlanta, Ga., best known for its consumer credit information services. The company was recently listed as number 20 on the FinTech 100 list.
“This recognition represents an excellent example of how our technology and vast industry experience provides significant value to the mortgage industry and will continue to do so as the industry evolves,” said Craig Crabtree, senior vice president at Equifax, in a recent statement.
Additionally, Equifax ranked among the top 30 with a rank of 29 on the 2010 InformationWeek 500 list. Equifax has been named on this 500 list for the past nine years, noting in a press release that as a highly innovative company, it has produced over 65 new products in the last few years.
“Leveraging Anakam’s solutions and highly-experienced management team alongside Equifax’s decisioning technology platforms, market presence and financial strength will allow us to broaden our portfolio of solutions in this large and rapidly-growing market,” announced Rajib Roy, president of Equifax’s Technology and Analytical Services, in an October press release.
Equifax’s interest in Anakam was due to the company’s solution to addressing security problems among a large number of users.
Equifax, despite the honors and the knowledge that it was making inroads into the technological side of its business, made sure that its prime business—consumer credit information—did not fall by the wayside.
Equifax finalized its purchase of Creditel of Canada in October, forming Canada’s prime source for consumer credit news. This purchase helps Equifax gain another foothold abroad and allows the firm to become an almost unbeatable competitor.
“Our goal in Canada is to achieve a level of quality and customer service unparalleled in the marketplace,” said J.C. Chartrand, chairman and CEO of Equifax Canada, in an Equifax statement.
“Chile is rapidly becoming a global outsourcing hub and around 4200 companies from 60 countries are operating in the region,” according to the Zacks Analyst blog.
Chile is a popular outsourcing destination, as it produces high quality engineers in its universities who demand a much lower salary than engineers in other countries.
The blog states that Equifax has become savvy in drawing talents and is “working with several universities of Chile to further modify the engineering curriculum so that it can meet industry demand.”
To solidify its position and decrease competition, Equifax absorbed a Chilean rival by acquiring AxonAxis, a Chilean startup company formed in 2005. Sales negotiations were complete in May. There is no mention of this acquisition on the Equifax website.
As the story goes, Equifax, when first approaching AxonAxis, “said it wanted to investigate why its small Latin American rival was doing extraordinarily well,” according to a recent Knowledge@Wharton (KW) report.
AxonAxis’s management was convinced that the underlying reason for Equifax’s attention was not that the global firm wanted to learn Axon’s techniques, but that the true intent was an acquisition spree, with AxonAxis as the target.
KW suggests that “AxonAxis’ greatest achievement was to capture the attention of Equifax, a major global player, by becoming a threat to the multinational within Latin America.”
By taking Equifax’s true intent as the starting point for internal discussions, management being of two minds, for or against the sale of the firm, decided to begin negotiations not from the present value, but from the projected value of the company at the end of 2012.
The negotiating process was long and harrowing, especially with such an experienced negotiator as Equifax. But it gave the AxonAxis team a skill that is difficult to learn otherwise and knowledge that was invaluable to everyone involved in the negotiations.
“It is a very slow process that never seems to end, and it can put the entire transaction at risk. Inevitably, these merger processes cause the business to lose its focus. It becomes a gigantic risk if the company is not well administered or if the transaction doesn’t wind up taking place,” said Marcos Almendras, managing director at AxonAxis, in the KW article.
“Looking forward to 2011, the financial services industry will be consumed by regulatory mandates and finding innovative ways to increase revenue. And one thing is certain—change will occur at breakneck speed and the industry will focus on responding,” according to an introduction to the 2010 FinTech 100 list released on Oct. 20.
The FinTech 100 list is a ranking of the top 100 leading technology and service firms to the financial sector, published by American Banker and Bank Technology News.
When financial services address fast-forward needs, technical service providers are on the top of the list. Reliable and consistent information at one’s fingertips is of prime importance, and those on the FinTech list provide the software programs the banks need so urgently.
Case in point is Equifax Inc., a global financial information provider based in Atlanta, Ga., best known for its consumer credit information services. The company was recently listed as number 20 on the FinTech 100 list.
“This recognition represents an excellent example of how our technology and vast industry experience provides significant value to the mortgage industry and will continue to do so as the industry evolves,” said Craig Crabtree, senior vice president at Equifax, in a recent statement.
Additionally, Equifax ranked among the top 30 with a rank of 29 on the 2010 InformationWeek 500 list. Equifax has been named on this 500 list for the past nine years, noting in a press release that as a highly innovative company, it has produced over 65 new products in the last few years.
Gaining a Foothold and Expertise Through Acquisition
Anakam Inc., a software solutions company formed in 2004 in San Diego, was the latest Equifax acquisition on its quest to corner the financial services software market, although Anakam had focused more on the government and health care sectors. Equifax, as it has in the past, did not disclose the terms of the sale.“Leveraging Anakam’s solutions and highly-experienced management team alongside Equifax’s decisioning technology platforms, market presence and financial strength will allow us to broaden our portfolio of solutions in this large and rapidly-growing market,” announced Rajib Roy, president of Equifax’s Technology and Analytical Services, in an October press release.
Equifax’s interest in Anakam was due to the company’s solution to addressing security problems among a large number of users.
Equifax, despite the honors and the knowledge that it was making inroads into the technological side of its business, made sure that its prime business—consumer credit information—did not fall by the wayside.
Equifax finalized its purchase of Creditel of Canada in October, forming Canada’s prime source for consumer credit news. This purchase helps Equifax gain another foothold abroad and allows the firm to become an almost unbeatable competitor.
“Our goal in Canada is to achieve a level of quality and customer service unparalleled in the marketplace,” said J.C. Chartrand, chairman and CEO of Equifax Canada, in an Equifax statement.
Keeping Outsourcing of Jobs Quiet
Without much fanfare, Equifax established a software research lab in Chile in 2009. It reasoned that Chile is cheaper than Silicon Valley, as employees are paid far less than software engineers in the United States.“Chile is rapidly becoming a global outsourcing hub and around 4200 companies from 60 countries are operating in the region,” according to the Zacks Analyst blog.
Chile is a popular outsourcing destination, as it produces high quality engineers in its universities who demand a much lower salary than engineers in other countries.
The blog states that Equifax has become savvy in drawing talents and is “working with several universities of Chile to further modify the engineering curriculum so that it can meet industry demand.”
To solidify its position and decrease competition, Equifax absorbed a Chilean rival by acquiring AxonAxis, a Chilean startup company formed in 2005. Sales negotiations were complete in May. There is no mention of this acquisition on the Equifax website.
As the story goes, Equifax, when first approaching AxonAxis, “said it wanted to investigate why its small Latin American rival was doing extraordinarily well,” according to a recent Knowledge@Wharton (KW) report.
AxonAxis’s management was convinced that the underlying reason for Equifax’s attention was not that the global firm wanted to learn Axon’s techniques, but that the true intent was an acquisition spree, with AxonAxis as the target.
KW suggests that “AxonAxis’ greatest achievement was to capture the attention of Equifax, a major global player, by becoming a threat to the multinational within Latin America.”
By taking Equifax’s true intent as the starting point for internal discussions, management being of two minds, for or against the sale of the firm, decided to begin negotiations not from the present value, but from the projected value of the company at the end of 2012.
The negotiating process was long and harrowing, especially with such an experienced negotiator as Equifax. But it gave the AxonAxis team a skill that is difficult to learn otherwise and knowledge that was invaluable to everyone involved in the negotiations.
“It is a very slow process that never seems to end, and it can put the entire transaction at risk. Inevitably, these merger processes cause the business to lose its focus. It becomes a gigantic risk if the company is not well administered or if the transaction doesn’t wind up taking place,” said Marcos Almendras, managing director at AxonAxis, in the KW article.
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