Equifax's earnings drop 27%; mortgage services revenue flat

Third-quarter net income attributable to Equifax Inc. dropped from a year earlier as the company revealed and addressed damage from a cybersecurity incident, but mortgage services revenue remained fairly stable.

Equifax's net income fell 27% year over year and 75% from the second quarter, to $96.3 million.

Mortgage services revenue fell 2% year over year to $38.8 million, versus $38.6 million in the second quarter.

Revenue from mortgage solutions represented about 12.6% of the company's $307.7 million in total revenue during the quarter, versus $317.4 million in the year-earlier quarter and $331.9 million the second quarter.

"As we report our third-quarter results, we recognize that we have an important journey in front of us to regain the trust and confidence of consumers and our business customers," said interim CEO Paulino Barros. "Our teams have taken immediate actions to improve our data security and provide improved support for consumers who were impacted by our cybersecurity incident."

In addition to the consumer credit reporting services used broadly by Equifax business customers, the mortgage industry uses employment and income verification services offered by the company.

Equifax was the main direct supplier of income and employment verifications lenders can opt for to get immediate representation and warranty relief on those loan data points from Fannie Mae through its Day 1 Certainty program.

But Fannie is adding more vendors in this area that will compete with Equifax, including a new Single Source validation from consumer-authorized bank information slated to become available next year.