NEWS
Equifax invests US$4.5 million in Costa Rican Shared Services Center, bringing total headcount to 1,000 employees in 2017
- The initial projection estimated 1,000 employees by the year 2018, but rapid growth in the services portfolio, the implementation of an internal promotion program and the hiring of many multilingual employees, accelerated the goal.
San José, September 8th, 2016. – Equifax Inc., a global information solutions company, today announced the opening of its second shared services center in Costa Rica. With this new site, the company expects to grow to 1,000 total employees by the end of 2017.
The company, which has been operating in Costa Rica since 1995, is continuing to deliver on its operations expansion plan, which was launched in 2015 with the creation of 400 new jobs. Due to significant growth and the diversification of its services in areas such as finance, procurement and accounting, in addition to strengthening the branches of information technology, information security and business operations, Equifax continues to recognize further investment in its centers, employees and the local Costa Rican economy. Currently, 800 employees work within the company
The new two-story building, which is approximately 4,400 square meters, is located in the Metro Free Zone in Barreal de Heredia, and represents a US$ 4.5 million investments for Equifax.
The inauguration was attended by the President of the Republic of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, the Minister of Foreign Trade, Alexander Mora, CINDE Managing Director, Jorge Sequeira and senior executives from Equifax.
The President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera expressed satisfaction about Equifax’s growing presence in Costa Rica and its positive impact on the country’s developing economy. He personally visited the Equifax headquarters in Atlanta, where he met with the CEO and Chief Global Operations Officer in May of 2015 to discuss business expansion and other important topics. "We are very pleased to have collaborated with Equifax on this project in order to generate quality jobs for many Costa Ricans. From our standpoint, we have been championing government policies which attract investment, and last year we were able to meet with company representatives to enable this new process, which has become a reality. Equifax is a strong global company which has had a presence here in Costa Rica for many years, and we are honored by this sign of confidence in our country," he said.
Andy Bodea, Chief Global Operations Officer for Equifax, stated, “Equifax has had a strong presence in Costa Rica for more than 20 years, and we are proud to expand our investment in the people of Costa Rica, in the community of Heredia and in our local operations. An important factor in deciding to expand our operations here was the high quality, performance, and dedication of our Costa Rican employees. We continue to be impressed by the number of well-qualified applicants for the positions we have available. Thanks to the excellent cooperation with the government and support from CINDE, we have been able to open our second shared services center to support the growth of our operations. We will continue to deepen our commitment to this market and hope to have a long-standing, collaborative relationship with the government in Costa Rica."
The new shared services center will support Equifax operations in over 15 countries in North America, Latin America and Europe, in areas such as cyber security, finance and accounting, information technologies and customer service.
Alexander Mora, Minister of Foreign Trade, received the Equifax expansion announcement as very good news for the country. “Equifax is a worldwide leading company that provides services associated with credit reports. Its long-standing presence in our country and its constant evolution towards more complex and sophisticated processes shows, once again, that Costa Rica is a competitive country with a very favorable investment climate. It is also proof of the great job done by the Costa Rican human talent, every time more prepared to face the changing demands of the market and the environment in which global businesses operate.”
According to Jairo Quirós, Director of Shared Services Center at Equifax, the rapid growth of the company has accelerated the hiring of many new employees, which will reach 1,000 total headcount at a much earlier date than expected. "We have been able to expand our service portfolio and generate more senior-level jobs. Also, our internal promotion program, as well as the of recruitment of talent whom are fluent in Spanish, English and French, have allowed us to grow our workforce to over 800 employees, a number that will continue to grow in the coming months," he said.
Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director of CINDE said: “Equifax’s growing presence in Costa Rica reflects the dynamism that the services sector has in the country. If we want more companies to establish in Costa Rica and create better paid jobs, we need to graduate more specialized human talent in high-demand careers who also speaks a second language. Companies of the sector have confirmed that jobs opportunities would be opened more rapidly if we had better trained professionals. This is an opportunity that should not be missed.”
During this phase of hiring, the company will focus on onboarding customer service representatives with English proficiency, business analysts, accounting and finance professionals, procurement staff, software engineers, application developers, security professionals, data analysts, quality-check engineers and cyber security specialists, among others.
About Equifax
Equifax powers the financial future of individuals and organizations around the world. Using the combined strength of unique trusted data, technology and innovative analytics, Equifax has grown from a consumer credit company into a leading provider of insights and knowledge that helps its customers make informed decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 800 million consumers and more than 88 million businesses worldwide, and its databases include employee data contributed from more than 5,000 employers.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. In Costa Rica, in addition to operating the shared services center, Equifax is the leading provider of credit reporting services and related analytics. Equifax is a member of Standard andamp; Poor's (Sandamp;P) 500® Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,200 employees worldwide.
Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Ranked 13 on the American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2015); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2015); named one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015). For more information, visit
www.equifax.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION
CINDE
Carlos Morales
cmorales@cinde.org
