Equifax Inc (EFX) — Q1 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today’s conference call. I’m Jeff Dodge and on today’s call with me are Mark Begor, Chief Executive Officer; and John Gamble, Chief Financial Officer. Today’s call is being recorded. An archive of the recording will be available later today on our website in the Investor Relations section under Earnings Calls, Presentations and Webcasts. During the call today, we will be making reference to certain materials that can also be found under the Earnings Calls, Presentations and Webcasts section. These materials are labeled Q1 2020 Earnings Release Presentation. During this call, we’ll also be making some forward-looking statements to help you understand Equifax and its business environment. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the impact of COVID-19, and economic conditions on our future operations that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Certain risk factors inherent in our business are set forth in filings with the SEC, including our 2019 Form 10-K and subsequent filings. Also, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EPS attributable to Equifax and adjusted EBITDA, which will be adjusted for specific items that affect the comparability of our underlying operational performance. For the first quarter of 2020, adjusted EPS attributable to Equifax excludes costs associated with acquisition-related amortization expense, gains on fair market value adjustments of equity investments, the foreign currency impact of certain intercompany loans, and a valuation allowance for certain deferred tax assets. Adjusted EPS attributable to Equifax also excludes legal and professional fees related to the 2017 cybersecurity incident, principally fees related to our outstanding litigation and government investigations, as well as the incremental nonrecurring project costs designed to enhance our technology and data security. These projects are expected to enhance our data security infrastructure and are anticipated to occur in 2020 and 2021. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to Equifax, adding back interest expense net of interest income, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, and excluding costs related to the 2017 cybersecurity incident, gains on fair market value adjustments and equity investments, the foreign currency impact of certain intercompany loans, and foreign currency losses. These non-GAAP measures are detailed in reconciliation tables included with our earnings release and are also posted on our website. Now I’d like to turn it over to Mark.

Thanks, Jeff. And good morning, everyone. We are all facing unprecedented times during the COVID global pandemic. I hope you and your families are safe in managing this unusual environment. We’d like to start by thanking the dedicated and selfless healthcare professionals, first responders, volunteers and others around the world who are fighting on the frontline of this pandemic. Their dedication and sacrifice is nothing less than heroic. The economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding and will clearly be deeper than anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. To help with today’s discussion, we posted a first quarter 2020 Investor Relations presentation, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website under Events and Presentations. We plan to walk through the presentation on today’s call if you want to pull it up. At Equifax, as we execute our work-from-home protocol and business continuity plans during this pandemic, we’re focused on five critical priorities. First, the health and safety of our employees and their families. Second, continuing to deliver for our customers with the highest level of service and supporting them with new data and analytical services they will need as their businesses and priorities change in response to the pandemic. Third, supporting consumers challenged by COVID-19 by providing free credit reports and financial education. Fourth, executing on our cloud technology data and security transformation. Our focus and investment in this transformation continue at the same levels we had originally planned for 2020, aiming to accelerate our cloud-based data and technology capabilities. Funding and executing our cloud technology transformation continues to be a priority for Equifax. And fifth, continuing the new product momentum from 2019 with new product introductions tailored off Equifax’s unique data assets for the recession environment. Like most companies, we initiated our COVID-19 business continuity plans in mid-March, activating our crisis management team and reporting directly to me, as well as instituting ongoing interaction with our Board to keep them informed of our plans. We have over 9,000 employees working from home across our global workforce. Only essential roles in customer support and data center operations continue to work from our facilities. We have virtually eliminated travel. For our close to 2,000 associates in essential roles working from our facilities, we have implemented social distancing of workspaces, aggressive cleaning, and sanitizing to ensure our sites are as safe as possible. We’ve been in work-from-home mode and no-travel environment for five weeks now, and are operating continuously and effectively for our customers. We believe our team’s efficiency is at levels at or better than pre-crisis. We are seeing tremendous benefits from our move to cloud-native tools that are driving significant collaboration. Our development teams are working almost exclusively on Google Cloud platform and Amazon Cloud services, and their efficiency continues at high levels. Our movement to cloud-based security tools over the past 30 months has also proven highly beneficial in this new work-from-home environment. I hope this gives you a strong sense that Equifax is executing and delivering well during these challenging times for our customers and consumers while continuing our cloud and new product investments for the future. I’m also pleased with the team we have in place to manage through this COVID-19 crisis. They are battle-tested with deep domain experience. My personal experience leading GE Capital’s card business during the 2009 global financial crisis gives me a unique customer perspective on the value of data and analytics in a recession environment. Moving now to our results for the first quarter. We’re pleased with our financial performance, as both revenue and adjusted EPS significantly exceeded our expectations and guidance for the quarter. The first quarter delivered our strongest performance since the 2017 cyber event and continued our strong momentum from the second half of 2019 where our organic growth revenue rate jumped to over 9% during the last six months of that year. First quarter revenue of $958 million was up over 15% in constant currency and up 14% on an organic constant currency basis. We had strong revenue growth driven by our US B2B businesses, USIS and EWS, that collectively were up a strong 22%. Workforce Solutions showed outstanding performance with a 32% increase, and USIS was also robust, seeing a 15% rise. Inquiries in the US mortgage market reached historic high levels given the low interest rate environment, increasing by almost 42%. International revenue grew 3% in constant currency, while global consumer continued their path back to growth with revenue up over 3%, marking their third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. These results were dampened by the COVID-19 lockdown impacts during the last two weeks of March, which reduced first quarter revenue by approximately $20 million. Adjusted EPS of $1.40 per share rose 16% and was well above our expectations. As we discussed on prior calls, we incurred redundant systems costs that dampened our earnings growth rate. Adjusted EBITDA increased 20% with margins of 32.4%—up 190 basis points compared with the first quarter of 2019, owing to strong revenue growth and effective cost management measures. As discussed on previous calls, we expect our EBITDA to grow more rapidly than EPS in the coming years due to increased amortization of our incremental cloud transformation investments. FX movements in the quarter negatively impacted revenue and adjusted EPS more than expected by $13 million and $0.02 per share, respectively. We are well-positioned to navigate the COVID-19 economic headwinds with our constant dollar revenue growth through February of 15%, showcasing the strong progress we are making across all our businesses. Now I’ll discuss the first quarter performance of each of our four business units. Later in my comments, I will detail the impacts we are seeing in April as the coronavirus lockdown affects portions of our business regarding our financial performance in the second quarter. USIS revenue of $343 million in the first quarter was up 15% compared with the first quarter of 2019 on a reported basis and 13% on an organic basis. For the quarter, online revenue was up 16%. Online non-mortgage revenue rose 3%. However, online non-mortgage organic revenue declined 1% due to lower volumes in March resulting from economic activity declines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Up until February, USIS online non-mortgage revenue was up 7% in total and a solid 2.5% on an organic basis. We experienced nice growth across auto, direct-to-consumer, banking, and insurance, which was partially offset by declines in telecommunications during the first two months of the quarter. In telecommunications, we regained primary share with a major customer beginning in March, which is a positive sign heading into the second quarter. The strengthening of online revenue through February is encouraging and indicates our continued progress in USIS commercially. Mortgage solutions experienced a robust 33% growth in the quarter, albeit lower than mortgage market inquiry growth given the mix shift from mortgage solutions to online. These solutions continue to perform well in this low interest rate environment. The revenue for USIS's Financial Marketing Service decreased 2% compared to the prior year due to lower-than-expected project revenue in March amid the COVID-19 lockdowns. I remain very encouraged by Sid Singh’s performance and his USIS team in the first quarter, particularly in their strong growth through February and their ability to swiftly adapt their product offerings and sales efforts in March in response to the changing customer needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, we are seeing the success across Equifax in focusing our efforts with customers on solutions that leverage our unique data assets to help them navigate through this recession. We're also experiencing accelerating commercial activity, evidenced by a 6% increase in pipeline opportunities at the end of March compared to December 2019, and a notable 33% rise from March 2019. Our win rate in the first quarter was up about 500 basis points from the first quarter of the previous year. Despite the adverse economic conditions, we continue to close new deals with customers and expect mortgage growth to remain strong in the second quarter due to the ongoing low interest rate environment. USIS adjusted EBITDA margins of 44.7% were up 170 basis points from the first quarter of 2019, driven by increased revenue but somewhat offset by higher royalty costs and increased investments in new product development along with consumer support costs. Now, let's discuss the performance of Workforce Solutions. They delivered another exceptional quarter, with revenue up 32% compared to the first quarter of 2019. Rudy Ploder and his EWS team delivered the highest growth quarter for EWS since we acquired the business in 2007. On a run-rate basis for the 12 months ended March 31, EWS crossed the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time in history, which is a significant milestone. Verification Services revenue soared by an incredible 48% year-over-year, driven by outstanding growth in verification and mortgage services. This remarkable growth also reflects continued year-over-year growth in the number of active records, as well as the rollout of new products in various verticals. Non-mortgage revenue growth in EWS and Verification Services was robust, with growth rates of 9% and 15%, respectively, compared to the prior year. Year to date and through February, Verification Services has recorded impressive double-digit growth in key verticals including government, auto, and talent management, although there was a slight reduction from 18% in February down to 15% due to COVID-19’s impact in the latter half of March. The Work Number database concluded the first quarter with 105 million active records and 80 million unique individuals, reflecting an 18% increase year-on-year. The database now represents about half of US non-farm payroll, and our contributors have grown from just under 30,000 a year ago to over 700,000 companies contributing in the first quarter. We anticipate ongoing growth in our Work Number contributor base in the second quarter of 2020. The Work Number database serves as a distinct and valuable asset, especially amidst the income and employment uncertainties faced by consumers in the US. Our Employer Services business had flat revenue compared to the first quarter of 2019, showcasing slight growth in I-9 and talent management, offset by declines in unemployment insurance claims management and Workforce Analytics. For the quarter, Employer Services revenue increased by 2%, with our unemployment insurance claims management growing by 8% due to a massive increase in filing volumes in March. We expect substantial growth in these claims during the second quarter. John will provide further insights on the trends from March and April shortly. The strong verifier revenue growth resulted in adjusted EBITDA margins of 51.5%, which is up 210 basis points from last year owing to revenue growth and proactive cost management, overwhelmingly offsetting increased royalty costs and system costs from our technology transformation efforts. International revenue amounted to $216 million, reflecting a 3% year-over-year growth in constant currency but a 4% decline when reported. Up until February, international constant currency revenue increased by 8%, accompanied by organic revenue growth of 7.5%. Asia Pacific's revenue reached $70 million in the first quarter, rising 3% year-over-year in constant currency. However, through February, this region's growth was 5% in local currency. The UK saw a decline in revenue of approximately 1% year-over-year, primarily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Many of our European and UK businesses experienced comparable revenue growth through February. Lastly, our Latin American revenues were up 9% in local currency, benefitting from rapid adoption of our platforms in the market. Despite some modest contractions observed in consumer credit growth in Latin America in March, adjustments are expected to pave the way for a stronger recovery as pandemic concerns gradually dissipate. The international EBITDA margins improved to 27.8%, increasing 250 basis points compared to the previous year, reflecting the benefit of revenue growth and cost actions undertaken by the international team during previous quarters. Finally, the revenue from our Global Consumer Solutions segment was up 3% in both reported and constant currency. This marked their third consecutive quarter of growth, although US consumer direct revenue declined approximately 2% year-over-year in the first quarter. Overall, total subscribers in the US, Canada, and UK showed stability to slight increases moving into the second quarter, providing encouraging signals amidst the backdrop of recent economic downturns. With the weakening observed in several business units and sectors from the pandemic beginning in the second half of March, we’ve introduced an array of stringent cost-cutting measures company-wide. Currently, we are anticipating $90 million in discretionary cost reductions versus our 2020 business plan, and, if necessary, we’re prepared to take further cost actions as needed to protect our foundational business through this economic event. Moreover, I’m committed to maintaining our strategic investments in cloud technology and data transformation initiatives at planned levels. Shifting focus to trends post-March, we began witnessing revenue impacts across multiple verticals due to lockdown measures enforced globally. To provide insights amidst this uncertainty, we wanted to share our perspective on the recession-resilient areas, our past performance during the global financial crisis, and current trends we observe within our daily transactions. We’ve categorized our line of businesses into three segments. First, recession-resistant sectors, which we expect will continue to grow through COVID-19; second, countercyclical sectors with projected growth amid recession; and third, recession-impacted sectors expected to witness negative growth. Currently, we project about 65% of our US businesses fall under recession-resistant or countercyclical categories, whereas globally, around 55% falls into these same segments, a notable increase from only 40% in 2009 during the financial crisis. Our cloud technology and data transformation are timed well as benefits begin to materialize in 2020 and increase in 2021 and 2022. While it remains unclear how long the COVID-19 recession will last, we’re prepared with a robust strategy and an experienced team that understands market dynamics and fortified by enhanced data capabilities. I'll now turn the discussion over to John Gamble for financial trends as well as an update on our liquidity, technology cost savings, and other financial aspects.

Thanks, Mark. As a reminder, I will generally be referring to the financial results from continuing operations, represented on a GAAP basis, but will reference non-GAAP results as well. First, a few items in Q1 2020. In the first quarter, total non-recurring or one-time costs, principally related to the cybersecurity incident and our transformation efforts, amounted to $81 million, a decrease of $16 million compared to the prior year. The costs include $78 million for technology and security, along with $3 million for legal fees. In Q1 2020, general corporate expenses were $134 million. Excluding the non-recurring costs, adjusted general corporate expenses for the quarter were $91 million, reflecting an increase of $17 million from Q1 2019. This increase reflects higher security technology and equity compensation costs in 2020 compared to 2019 that we discussed in February. For Q1 2020, the effective tax rate used in calculating adjusted EPS was 25.3% and is consistent with the rate provided in February guidance. Interest expense for the quarter was $31 million, reflecting an increase of $4 million from Q1 2019, aligning with our expectations due to financing $341 million of legal settlement payments made in Q3 2019. Our liquidity and balance sheet remains strong. We had nearly $1.6 billion in available liquidity at March 31, which included $370 million in cash and $1.2 billion in available credit borrowing capacity. We have no debt maturities in 2020 and the remaining $355 million of our US comprehensive consumer settlement is likely to be paid in Q1 2021. Recently, we worked with our credit facility lenders to amend our covenants starting in Q2 2020 through 2021. As of March 31, our leverage ratio was 2.7 based on our amended credit agreement, which is well within our new leverage covenant of 4.5 times. This amendment provides significant financial flexibility to support our ongoing execution of the Equifax 2020 cloud technology and data transformation initiative and investment in new capabilities during this recession. We are observing current trends closely and will continue proactively managing to safeguard these critical investments. Q1 2020 operating cash flow was $31 million, remaining flat with Q1 2019. Cash flow in the first quarter is typically low due to bonus payments, annual 401(k) matches, dividends, and interest payments occurring all at once. In addition, we made $47 million in legal settlement payments associated with the 2017 cybersecurity incident during Q1 2020. Capital expenditures for Q1 2020 totaled $88 million, a reduction of $27 million from 2019. Currently, we have around $400 million in remaining payments pending litigation and regulatory outcomes related to the 2017 cybersecurity incident. About $53 million will be paid in 2020, predominantly in Q2. The timing for the remaining $350 million of the US consumer restitution fund is contingent on resolving appeals related to this case, which remains uncertain. Further details on all outstanding regulatory and legal issues will be provided in our Q1 2020 Form 10-Q. Moving to the impacts of our cloud technology and data transformation in 2020. As discussed in our February call, as we implement our new cloud-native systems, we begin incurring depreciation and cloud costs associated with both new and legacy systems. The transition period for these systems typically takes between six to twelve months, during which we incur costs for operating both sets of systems. In 2020, we expect these redundant costs to be in the range of $0.40 to $0.50 per share, with increased depreciation representing about two-thirds of the additional cost and cloud expenses net of legacy system decommissioning savings comprising the remaining third of this cost. During Q1 2020, additional redundant system costs came in at about $15 million or $0.09 per share. Progressing into 2021, we foresee decommissioning legacy systems yielding savings that will exceed the cloud-related costs from our new systems, marking a positive shift in our cost structure. As noted on slide 11, we anticipate generating significant cost savings from our cloud technology and data transformation, amounting to a 15% plus reduction in technology costs excluding depreciation and amortization of COGS when normalized against 2019 levels. Similarly, we project a 25% reduction in our development expenses upon completing the transformation, corresponding to $35 million in annual savings based on 2019 expenditure levels. Collectively, these figures indicate potential annualized savings of around $240 million, thereby strengthening our financial profile and enabling further investment in new products and growth while enhancing margins. Alongside the cost implications of our cloud transformation, we expect our new single data fabric and cloud applications to accelerate innovation and revenue growth through new product offerings. We aim to realize net COGS savings by the second half of 2021 and reach full run-rate savings in both COGS and capital expenditures by 2022. As such, we remain focused on prioritizing reinvestment of savings into new product initiatives to maintain growth potential. Presently, the evolving COVID-19 crisis significantly differs from previous economic downturns, presenting uncertainties regarding its depth and duration. We refrain from providing 2020 guidance and will reinstate it once there’s better clarity on long-term implications from COVID-19. Nevertheless, the illustrative framework on slide 14 offers insights into our anticipated second quarter performance—if the business maintains current trends observed through April, we estimate total Equifax revenue could decline by approximately 6.5% to 8.5% on a constant currency basis, translating to a reduction of $55 million to $75 million compared to Q2 2019. With prevailing foreign exchange rates factored in, revenue could be lower by 8.5% to 10.5% or $75 million to $95 million year over year, resulting in total second-quarter revenue in the range of $785 million to $805 million. This leads to projected adjusted EPS between $0.78 to $0.88 per share, indicating a drop of 37% to 44% from Q2 2019. On these adjusted EPS levels, Equifax will still generate around $225 million in adjusted EBITDA. It’s essential to note that this data is not meant as guidance, given the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic’s economic impacts. It serves to assist in estimating potential revenue performance in Q2 2020. I’ll turn the call back to Mark.

Thanks, John. I hope our transparency on recent revenue trends and the framework for the second quarter is helpful. Let me wrap up with a discussion on our future. Our $1.25 billion EFX 2020 cloud technology and data transformation and our continuing investment in new products remain a priority during 2020 as we work to complete the strategic transformation and deliver revenue, cost, and cash benefits outlined by John. We aren’t experiencing negative impacts on the cloud transformation progress from the new working environment, as our technology team was already well-versed in remote operational capabilities. Our goal is to finalize the initial migrations of several large data exchanges by the end of the third quarter, including the Work Number, NCTUE, US Consumer Risk, and others, with initial migrations of our eID identity validation systems completed in April. Our new Luminate cloud identity and fraud suite, along with the Ignite analytics platform, is also tracking along as planned. Enhanced by our cloud-native systems and infrastructure migration, we are confident of our ability to deliver to our customers. New product innovations remain fundamental to our EFX 2020 strategy and are essential for our long-term revenue growth. We anticipate launching over 100 products this year, compared to 90 last year and 60 in 2018, and we're already off to a robust start with 34 product launches in 2020, marking a two-fold increase from last year’s first quarter. Numerous new products increasingly draw on the expansive capabilities of our cloud-native systems. The health organization continues to collaborate with consumers during this pandemic while ensuring uninterrupted credit reporting. Through our partnerships with Experian and TransUnion, we’re offering free weekly credit reports available for US consumers until April 2021. Amidst these unprecedented and challenging times, we appreciate the efforts of frontline healthcare professionals and welcome opportunities to assist consumers and businesses as they navigate the current environment. In conclusion, Equifax is set for a strong future post-COVID-19 due to our resilience and operational strength. Our strategic investments in cloud and new products power our growth ahead, ensuring that we remain competitive in the upcoming years. The financial profiles we’ve established and our stimulating momentum positions us to weather this tempestuous economic environment. I’ll now turn the call back to you, operator, for questions.

Hi. Good morning. First, I want to thank you for that slide deck. That disclosure is like industry-best. I want to go back to slide seven, when you really went over the great financial crisis. Mark, you kind of segued to talking about how EWS might do through this crisis. And my feeling is thinking back to 2009, 2009 is really just two years after TALX was acquired in 2007. I remember it benefited from just being part of the Equifax ecosystem. And now, obviously, a decade later, that’s kind of like a standard. And so I wonder, do you feel like Verifier might just be more subject to end market volatility now than it was in 2009, just because that benefit has been kind of in place for a decade now?

Yeah, Andrew. Thanks for the question. You’re right that Workforce Solutions or TALX was only a couple of years into Equifax at that time, and it was a different scale of the business. Their database was a fraction of the size it is today. There is no question that there will be pockets where we’re seeing impacts. As John showed you in the trends in April, income and employment data is frequently used in personal loans or in auto, subprime auto. We’re seeing some pressure there due to reductions in originations. Many people aren't buying cars in the past five weeks, for example. But if you look at the broader perspective of the business and where our income and employment data is used, we believe that the TWN data is far more valuable today in this economic event from COVID-19 than it was in the global financial crisis. In that crisis, the unemployment levels were quite high, but you didn't have the uncertainty surrounding furloughs and significant salary reductions that we are witnessing presently. And what we’re hearing from our customers is the value of knowing if someone is working and understanding how much they earn is more critical today in this economic cycle than it was back then. Moreover, the scale of use of the product in mortgage is now much larger than it was during that period. The different system connections that we established allow for easier access and integration at a larger scale. Therefore, Workforce Solutions holds a stronger position in this environment, and we think it will continue strengthening as we move forward. The value of our data assets during this unprecedented economic impact is greater than in previous recessions, and the way we are leveraging that is beneficial for us.

I agree. Thank you.

Hi, good morning. Appreciate all the detail, guys. Mark, a couple of questions for you, I guess. First, when I think about Verifier, I think you touched on it in response to Andrew’s question. Could you discuss how much of the business is SMB? It seems like much of the disruption we’re seeing is at that level. So I wonder if that - how much in terms of the employer business, how much you wind up capturing based on mix?

Do you mean on the contributor side or on the verification side, Andrew?

On the contributor side?

Okay. There's no question that looking back, in 2009 we had about 30,000 contributors that were primarily large businesses. Our intentional strategy over the last decade has focused on getting to small businesses, and we ended the quarter with around 700,000 companies contributing data to us. So we’ve been adding numerous small businesses as contributors. The pandemic's impact is widespread; large companies and firms in sectors like airlines or hospitality are furloughing many employees and enacting salary reductions. So it’s a broad economic event. What we’re hearing from our customers, in which the understanding of forbearances, delinquencies, is a challenge. It's more difficult to ascertain than it was during the global financial crisis. Accurate knowledge of who is working and for how much, avoiding furloughs and understanding salary changes is critically important. We have the most current data in our industry, updating it every pay cycle, providing us with highly valuable data due to its currency. So we will continue to work with adding new records, and we have teams dedicated to increasing the data contributors. Our substantial expansion from the 30,000 contributors in 2009 to 105 million records today provides a valuable lever for business growth as we add more records and process more customer requests.

Okay. That’s all very helpful. Thanks. And then just a quick follow-up on mortgage, I know you’re not making any projections. But as you look into the back half, do you think the MBA forecast is the right way to think about your business?

Yeah. As you know, I’ll let John jump in. We don’t forecast mortgage. It’s not our gig. There are others that do that quite well. We look at all the mortgage forecasts when we’re doing our normal modeling, and I think you know we translate it through in a pretty formulaic way into our typical forecast and guidance process. But we don’t have visibility to the current market trends. We should focus on daily trends at this point.

Thank you.

Well, thank you. Good morning gentlemen. My first question is to your point you just made around the wide impact of the COVID crisis with lower salaries furloughed across the board. I was just curious why you bucketed a mortgage as a recession-resilient bucket. I mean, I understand the trends early on with the rate of the refis. But I’m just curious how you think about how that will perform resilient and maybe compared to ‘08 or ‘09 when the new lines of between purchase in sight probably?

Okay. I think we and I don’t think there is any company out there that can project where this is going to go. How long are these lockdowns going to last? When are they going to be lifted? Consumers are stuck at home; that limits their purchasing behavior. Therefore, it’s challenging to forecast 2020 versus 2009. We pointed out the differences between our performance in 2009 and the current COVID recession, which favors our positioning better today as a result of the mix of our businesses. That said, we don’t know what the stimulus package will entail, nor predict if there will be a second wave of layoffs. Our focus has been on being transparent, helping you understand our significant changes in the mix of our business and growth rates as we navigate through this COVID economic environment.

Got it. And then just to clarify on the Employer Services business and the business tied to unemployment claims. John, I think you mentioned you guys do one in six claims. I was just curious, is the revenue model just simply you get paid for each claim? Or is there some other nuance? I think there's just some confusion around that?

Sure. The way the business model works is it’s a subscription business where when people sign up for a subscription, they receive a certain number of claims included. As they exceed that subscription level, they pay additional overage fees, leading to revenue recognition upon delivery of service.

And those overages are currently in revenue mode as we speak, given the significant spike in unemployment claims.

Got it. Thank you, guys.

Good morning, John. Let me add my thanks for the presentation you put out this morning. I guess where I’d like to start is, if we look at slide number 12, where you’re talking about the 2020 April revenue trend. Like for the US business, USIS and EWS, can you maybe give us a sense of how those trends have trended throughout the month of April? Were they dramatically different last week versus, say, the first week of the month?

John, maybe I’ll start with a little bit of insight, and you can jump in. There was a difference between the last two weeks of March and the April trends, for sure. The last two weeks encompassed the peak period of our business continuity plans, going to work from home, and there simply was a different level of activity with our customers and consumers. As we entered April, we found ourselves in a more normalized situation. Calling it normalized in the context of shelter in place; consumers being more settled into that routine became a factor with activity levels returning. However, there were still fluctuations in daily revenue, which we examine closely. But those fluctuations also contribute to our average trends.

Indeed, trends were relatively variable week to week, especially for USIS and EWS as we compare annual performances. We monitor these metrics daily, but it's important to consider that trends can fluctuate significantly. Overall, we represented trends in the discussions we provided with regards to the quarter starting on slide 14.

Understood. I appreciate that color. And then just to clarify on slide 11, the $125 million of potential savings which will go into EBITDA once realized—should we assume additional savings will come from lower depreciation and amortization as well? Regarding slide 14, I know you're not giving guidance, but is it reasonable to assume that some of the $90 million of discretionary cost reductions would act as a buffer to the revenue decline illustrated in that slide?

Yes, as we move into the end of the year, we expect depreciation and amortization costs to stabilize as well. Total cost savings from discretionary spending and T&Es are already reflected in our second-quarter positions without providing further guidance on relative performance.

Overall, it's important to note that our continuous strategic investments are intended to keep us on track while we navigate through downturns, without sacrificing long-term growth goals and performance.

Good morning, and thanks for the exit rate data, guys. A couple of questions from me. I’m looking back at my model, and I think you guys bottomed out in the USIS online about minus 13% in one of the quarters in ‘09, if I'm remembering right. And I think you said you’re seeing about minus 30% now. I’m just wondering kind of the compare contrast between those two numbers, if I’ve got those right. What’s different and what’s similar between those two, and why more today?

There isn’t much that is similar—this situation is much more severe. This economic downturn is essential due to immediate responses to COVID-19 that are fundamentally different than in 2009. There, we had a slow economic build-up and eventual decline. Now, we have rapid changes, restrictions on movement, impacting economic activity in an unprecedented way. Understanding the consumer's current status is vital now more than ever. Comparing the systemic stresses we face today versus the past is revealing. Today, we must adapt to an adverse environment with significant uncertainty in consumer behavior and economic activity. This considerable difference is driving a steeper revenue discount.

In summary, our performance ultimately depends on navigating these tiers of uncertainty, ensuring we remain focused on maximizing opportunities across critical revenue streams.

Hi guys. Good morning. I guess, two-part question. First, on your Employer Services business, I'm sorry, Workforce Solutions business, how do we think about the 22 million jobs lost in the last couple of weeks on the record? How will that impact you? I’m just curious to know what your thoughts are.

There will clearly be some impact there, but no direct correlations to losses based on trends we've seen to date. Reductions in claims processed may impact service. However, our broad base of clients mitigates this risk, allowing for ongoing contributions to our active records pool and an increase in new contributions. We will keep track of these updates and evaluate them consistently.

We’ll measure these dynamics steadily throughout these coming cycles, adapting accordingly with the evolving market trends.

Absolutely, we will remain vigilant and proactive in our reactions throughout this period.

Hi, good morning. You talked quite a bit about the new product enhancements you’ve rolled out to address the recessionary environment, many of which seem to prioritize more frequent data updates. Do you think demand for these updates could persist after the crisis? Any other changes to customer behavior that you’ve seen could have lasting impacts?

We expect certain demand changes to continue, especially regarding income and employment data frequency. We’re prepared for a potential shift of increased product diversification based on lessons learned during this economic event, and we're embracing it as integral to future product development.

As we adapt and pivot our services to customers, finding new opportunities beyond the recession will enable us to build more durable revenue streams over the longer term.

Good morning everyone. I guess two quick questions. First on the social security contract, can you tell us when the revenue starts? Is that a Jan 1 start?

We don’t have a specific timetable for that. It’s a significant contract regarding how it impacts our income and employment data focused in EWS. We'll provide more clarity when appropriate.