Headwinds almost everywhere! From marketing to credit information and ratings. Comments to this effect came from the CEOs of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion although Equifax’s growth rates were above those of its competitors. The headwinds appear to be in mortgage markets retarding growth.
Experian’s organic growth was 6% while Equifax grew organically by 9%. Equifax’s commercial solutions grew at 10%, unfortunately Experian does not report on the commercial segment. An analyst asked whether Equifax was taking share in this segment. The answer was: “share gains in the long term, is a tough proposition. What you are better off doing is finding ways to build products and solve problems that no one can solve, so the spend goes up and the incremental gain.”
Headwinds appear to cause the growth of the rating agencies to cave in this quarter including their analytics businesses. What raises eyebrows are the continued excellent growth rates of the Thomson Reuters Governance, Risk and Compliance business, Verisk Analytics and Creditsafe. Will this be sustainable? 
Source: Q3 2013 Earnings Releases
