Ok, now that reminds me of a song. Peter, Paul, and Mary - mid 60’s I think. I only know it from reading up on musical history lol.
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“Where have all the flowers gone” by Pete Seeger was recorded by a number of artists.
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Yes, of course it was, I wasn’t remembering the name of it right right then.
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My guess is they knew shortly after the mishap and technology was busy putting in a fix to stop the bleeding and validating the fix worked.
Then management was then trying to get their hands around the impact by running countless analyses to find the right language to minimize the optics. Those queries and the analysis would not be easy.
What stood out to me was the comment by the chief executive Begor, “The impact is going to be quite small,” Mr. Begor said, “not something that’s meaningful to Equifax.”
Yeah, not meaningful. Great choice of words.
Lots of potential downstream pain will be shouldered by those relying on Equifax’s reports during that period.
Programs are wonderful pieces of technology because they can process millions of rows in seconds…and if the code is wrong it can create millions of errors in the same time frame.
Equifax had a data breach a few years ago too. Not good.
Edit: Some scores went from 0 to > 700 and from >700 to 0. Plus 20-25 points may be the difference between approval and denial and even more problematic between two different interests rates. The downstream lenders are in a pickle trying to clean up the wrong interest rate assigned especially since rates have changed several times since. But this issue is so small it is meaningless to Equifax according to Begor.
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Thoughtful post.
I’m so hoping things improve for you and your countrymen. Very challenging times, but know we’re thinking of you.
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Thanks for the earworm 
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Reported!
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My friend Lynn enlisted in the AF back in the 70s.
He hated it.
He got caught smoking dope and had to go through the normal brainwashing.
They told him you get caught smoking dope again, you’re outta here.
So he turned himself in anonymously and they did indeed
drum him out.
He was dancing in ecstasy.
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Smart move. Wait, was he dancing IN ecstasy or ON ecstasy? 
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Dancing on the ceiling 
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Jeez, it’s earworm fucking central up in here today.
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Lol. Both those songs are terrible ear worms. Next up, Row Row Row Your Boat.
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Yeah, trust me, I know how large corporations react to something like this. What I meant was why on the consumer side it took so long to be noticed. For example, if 4 million credit reports were wrong and this lead to 4 million people erroneously being denied credit, I think there would have been a hue and cry from the consumer side that some news organs might have picked up on.
Woah, the tone deafness of that comment. The VP of the corp communications dept (if consulted on the statement) should be fired. But Begor himself should have known how bad it sounds. He’s talking at the investment community and completely ignoring the consumers.
You mention an interesting wrinkle in the problem. Someone applying for a mortgage in March (but erroneously denied) may have gotten their wrong score fixed, but that March interest rate is long gone and not to return for a long time. It’s not the lender’s fault, so they’re not going to voluntarily give the person the then-prevailing rate.
What’s the fix? Equifax needs to induce ($$) lenders to give the people the rates they should have gotten but for the screw up.
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I know, right? I have it too - I shall flog myself!
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I had an Army acquaintance who “suited up” every day with a plasma bag of his wife’s urine taped under his armpit, with the tubing running to a fake penis he’d hollowed out and fitted with a click open / click closed type of valve.
No way was he going to give up the marijuana. So if we had a rando test that day, he’d whip it out, click and press his arm down to his side. It was warm enough under his armpit to pass the stick-on temperature LCD.
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Eh, there are worse songs to get stuck in my head, No flogging required 
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Mortgages may not be impacted much since they typically use all three scores. But Fanny/Freddie may owe lenders some money and visa versa if wrong scores were used.
But non-mortgage lenders like auto, cc, and the rental section (apartments, etc) may be facing blowback once Equifax informs applicants of the mistake.
Maybe I’m overreacting but this is a pita to those involved.
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Oh reeeealllly. I like challenges.
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