Baycorp Advantage (Veda Advantage)

The BayCorp Advantage was a well-known credit bureau located in Australia and New Zealand.

The Baycorp Advantage is the largest credit reference agency in Australia and provides credit scoring and credit reporting services, as well as marketing analytics to Australia and surrounding countries. Baycorp was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. BayCorp Advantage is now known as Equifax of Australia. financial organization dates back to 1998, when Credit Advantage took over the Credit Reference Association as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2001, Data Advantage then merged with Baycorp Advantage and the two entities had dual listings on the ASX and NZX. The two companies each took part of their name to create Baycorp Advantage. Since the original inception and merger, the company has underwent significant growth, adding several branches and services to their infrastructure. Almost every single acquisition, merger, and growth over the next years would solidify and strengthen Veda’s stance as the premier credit bureau agency in Australia.

In 2006, Baycorp Advantage merged with Data Advantage and shareholders of the company were given the opportunity to vote on a new name for the merger in the fall of the acquisition. The shareholders agreed on the new name of Veda Advantage and the other part of the company, the Baycorp Collection Services, was sold in May for 97 million dollars. The collections services division, despite being sold off, retained the Baycorp name.

The following year of 2007 saw Veda become a fully privatized company owned by Pacific Equity Partners and Merrill Lynch Private Equity Partners. The same year, Veda also acquired Australian Business Research (ABR) and National Tenancy Database (NTD) from Collection House Limited (CLH).

In 2009, Veda branched out even further, acquiring Secure Sentinel to build up its credit filing and alerting branch. Veda also introduced the first online automotive bureau in Australia with CarHistory.com.au. The new branch offers car reporting services to help consumers get complete history on a car before purchasing.

In February of 2016, Baycorp was acquired by the credit reporting giant Equifax, known as a global leader in information solutions with a footprint in 21 markets around the world. With the acquisition, Veda held data on over 14 million people and controlled over 85 percent of the credit reference market of Australia. In March of 2017, Veda officially rebranded as Equifax.