Equifax Canadian Credit Reports Offered in the MERit Credit Engine in Addition to the Three U.S. Bureaus

Equifax Canadian consumer credit reports are now available for automated direct access without additional transaction fees via the MERit Credit Engine

April 26, 2004--The MERit Credit Engine (MCE") provides a software interface and API that allows retrieval from the more than 15 million Equifax Canada consumer credit files, as well as from the U.S. credit bureau repositories. The MCE software parses and stores credit report data in SQL database tables and (optionally) as XML for use in custom reporting, credit scoring, and credit decisioning applications. Where needed, credit reports can be rendered as human-readable text in normal credit bureau layouts or even HTML format.

MERits Credit Engine technology is unique because it allows direct access to credit bureau data without third-party websites and without added transaction fees. It is ideal for high-volume batch and interactive applications. For data integrity, raw data is retrieved and stored using bureau specific Internet system-to-system protocols, and made available through bureau-neutral SQL, ActiveX, XML, and comma-delimited file interfaces.

Equifax Canada Inc. is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Equifax Inc., a worldwide leader in enabling and securing global commerce. Equifax employs 4,800 in 12 countries and has $1.1 billion in revenue.

MERit Credit Systems, Inc.(http://www.creditengine.net ) is a leading provider of desktop and server-based credit report retrieval software to access credit information from Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.

Contact:
MERit Credit Systems
(626) 963-8313
http://creditengine.net