Equifax to buy Mexican credit bureau for $750m

Equifax has agreed to buy Círculo de Crédito for an enterprise value of $750 million, marking its 17th bolt-on acquisition in six years. The Atlanta-based company will pay a gross price of $825 million, with the difference reflecting an estimated $75 million of cash held by the target.

Círculo de Crédito generated $134 million in revenue for the twelve months ending June 30, 2026, up 31 percent year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA reached $62 million over the same period. The bureau covers more than 80 million validated identities and roughly 2 billion tradelines across 1,700 customers in banking, retail and fintech.

The target is the only bureau in Mexico offering both consumer and commercial credit data, alongside a leading position in alternative data such as gig-economy and utility payments. Equifax intends to combine these datasets with its cloud-native infrastructure and EFX.AI technology. Juan Manuel Ruiz Palmieri will remain chief executive after the expected fourth-quarter 2026 close.

The deal will place Mexico’s entire core credit-data infrastructure under U.S. ownership. TransUnion is already associated with Buró de Crédito, the country’s other main bureau. This creates a transatlantic duopoly over a critical piece of national financial infrastructure, raising questions about data governance, competition and pricing power for lenders.

Equifax is positioning the acquisition around financial inclusion in Latin America’s second-largest economy. With 44 percent of the population unbanked and 33 million people in informal employment, the company believes alternative data can help lenders reach underserved consumers and microbusinesses. Investors in Mexican financials will now watch how regulators treat this consolidation and whether lending costs shift under the new competitive dynamic.