That's a ludicrous thought. They were the victims of a crime, not the criminals.
This is in no way similar to Target or HD, other than data were taken. The whole system upon which Equifax was built relied on a semi-secret number that cannot be changed. Those numbers, or at least the majority of them, are out in the open. There was a certain degree of trust that the person sitting across from you at the auto dealer finance desk was who they say they were, and that the report stating that they're good for a loan was accurate. That was not 100% true for a number of years, and it's potentially wildly inaccurate now.
IOW, Equifax's sloppy work resulted in a broken system from where I sit. If you're thinking I'm wishing bankruptcy upon Equifax, well, I didn't write that, sorry. But if the shaky foundation upon which your business model rests collapses, I would expect severe financial penalties. But, hell, Moody's is still in business.
You mean "which the credit industry was built"...not Equifax. Equifax is just one of the big 3 CRAs. Singling out Equifax in this context is taking a very narrow view.
Equifax is more than just a company in this business. It is part of cartel with just two other participants. It is not completely inaccurate to single out Equifax as a controller of this industry.
I don’t disagree. However, when I’m buying call options for a particular incident, I’m picking Equifax in this case, which was the context, and hence the singling out of one company amongst the three.
This is in no way similar to Target or HD, other than data were taken. The whole system upon which Equifax was built relied on a semi-secret number that cannot be changed. Those numbers, or at least the majority of them, are out in the open. There was a certain degree of trust that the person sitting across from you at the auto dealer finance desk was who they say they were, and that the report stating that they're good for a loan was accurate. That was not 100% true for a number of years, and it's potentially wildly inaccurate now.
IOW, Equifax's sloppy work resulted in a broken system from where I sit. If you're thinking I'm wishing bankruptcy upon Equifax, well, I didn't write that, sorry. But if the shaky foundation upon which your business model rests collapses, I would expect severe financial penalties. But, hell, Moody's is still in business.