Trans Union LLC And Data Advantage Limited Announce Joint Partnership To Establish Credit Reporting Services For Asian Pacific Countries.

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2000

Trans Union LLC today announced today the establishment of a decision support company to service Asian Pacific countries with its new joint venture business partner, Data Avantage Limited of Sydney, Australia.

The new company, Trans Union Advantage Pty Limited, will provide an integrated package of credit bureau services, credit risk information processing and risk management solutions as a decision support company to countries in the Asian Pacific region in support of growing economies.

Ralph Sorice, president of Trans Union International Inc., said Trans Union was enthusiastic about its partnership with Data Advantage and what it will bring to financial markets.

"The Asia Pacific markets will be afforded world-class products and services through our collective efforts and we anticipate a long, and successful relationship with Data Advantage and our customers," Mr. Sorice said today during the announcement in Sydney.

"Our joint venture will provide a platform and mission-critical data needed to enable financial markets to make well informed and timely decisions," Mr. Sorice added. "This capability will strengthen the performance of economies by allowing markets to become more proactive."

David Grafton, chief executive officer of Data Advantage, said that more than 30 Asian Pacific countries have been identified as potential customers of the joint venture business.

"We believe that by combining Trans Union's world-class credit bureau software expertise and experience with Data Advantage's regionally pre-eminent position and its credit-related scoring and marketing value-added products, a unique and powerful credit referencing infrastructure will be provided for any country in the Asia Pacific region," Mr. Grafton said.

Both companies believe the benefits of such an infrastructure will be extremely significant for Asia Pacific economies, their financial institutions and consumers of credit. For example, an economic crisis similar to the late 1990's could be avoided by the establishment of a credit-reporting infrastructure, which is able to assist in levels of bad debt.

Under the joint venture business agreement, Trans Union Advantage has an exclusive perpetual license to market its credit bureau software product in the Asia Pacific region. The Trans Union platform is a scalable, exportable, robust, UNIX based technology. It is currently operating in Canada, Mexico and Hong Kong.

"Trans Union has invested significant resources in the development of a sophisticated credit information and decisioning platform that only needs country-specific customization in order to `go live'," Mr. Grafton said. "This approach substantially reduces both deployment costs and timescales, compared with a project-based approach where the risks are also higher."

About Data Advantage

The Data Advantage group is the leading supplier in the Asia Pacific region of credit-related decision-support services, data and software. The Data Advantage group also provides marketing information services to the financial services industry and a range of receivables management and debt collection services. For more information visit our website on www.dataadvantage.com.au.

Data Advantage Limited listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1998 following the demutualization of CRAA, the Credit Reference Association of Australia.

About Trans Union

Trans Union is a leading global information company. The company provides a broad range of industries with products and services that include credit reports, risk-scoring models, target marketing systems, pre-employment evaluation reports, skip tracing and search tools, customized lists, as well as other information-based products. Trans Union has operations in Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Kenya and Hong Kong. In the United States, Trans Union serves all 50 states through its own sales offices and independent credit bureaus. For more information about Trans Union's products or services, visit the company on the Internet at www.transunion.com.