Good day everyone and welcome to the Equifax first quarter earnings release conference call. Today conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jeff Dodge. Please go ahead, sir. Good morning and welcome to today conference call. I'm Jeff Dodge, Investor Relations and with me are Rick Smith, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Lee Adrean, Chief Financial Officer. Today call is being recorded. An archive of the recording will be available later today in the Investor Relations section of the About Equifax tab of our website at www.equifax.com. During this call, we'll be making certain forward-looking statements to help you understand Equifax and its business environment. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. [Read the full article]

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT - News), a leading provider of financing to small businesses and middle market companies, today announced that it sold its 50% interest in the CIT Business Credit Canada Inc. (CIT Business Credit) joint venture to CIBC (CM: TSX;NYSE). The new business will be renamed CIBC Asset-Based Lending Inc. Terms were not disclosed.

CIT Business Credit was established in 2000 as a joint venture between CIBC and CIT Canada, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CIT Group Inc. CIT Business Credit combined CIBC's full range of commercial banking solutions with CIT's asset-based lending capability customized for the Canadian marketplace.

J. Daryl MacLellan, President of CIT Canada, said, “Our decision to divest our interest in this joint venture supports our ongoing efforts to streamline our corporate finance business and improve efficiencies. [Read the full article]

Equifax (NYSE: EFX - News) reported first quarter 2010 EPS of 56 cents exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1 cent. Revenue Revenue for the quarter was $461.3 million, up 3.0% from $446.6 million reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenue remained almost unchanged, when adjusted with respect to the favorable effect of the foreign exchange rates. This can be attributed to the increase in business in the North America personal and North America commercial solutions, which exceeded the companys revenue growth expectations. This apart, the revival in the economy and the clients focus on new business opportunities also helped the company generate higher revenues. Segment-wise, North American Commercial Solutions contributed $18.7 million, up 3.0% year over year. North American Personal Solutions contributed $39.7 million, up 3.0% year over year. International (including Europe, Canada and Latin America) contributed $116.2 million, up 15.0% year over year. [Read the full article]