Tuesday afternoon Equifax announced its CEO Richard Smith is stepping down after weeks of mounting concern over the massive data breach that’s put 143 million consumers at risk.
The announcement of Smith’s departure, who will also forgo his annual bonus, comes days after Equifax stated it’s chief information officer and chief security officer were retiring.
Since going public about the breach in early September, despite the hack happening between May and June, it’s now known that an estimated 10,000 Canadians are at risk. With it widely being viewed as a messy handling of the situation, Equifax is being investigated by the U.S Federal Trade Commision and faces criticism from lawmakers, regulators and consumers.
“At this critical juncture I believe it is in the best interests of the company to have new leadership move the company forward,” Smith said in a statement.
Company shares are down 30 per cent since the entire fiasco kicked off, and were down 1.6 per cent at $103.35 early Tuesday morning.
Smith is scheduled to testify about the break before the panel of U.S House Energy and Commerce Committee on Oct. 3. There is no official word as to whether or not Smith will appear before The Senate Banking Committee on Oct. 4 to speak.
Both the company and Smith agreed that Equifax will hold off on any decision regarding “any obligations or benefits,” owed to him until an independent review of the breach is conducted by the company board. Smith earned a total of $14.96 million in 2016.
Read the full story over at The Globe and Mail.
This story was summarized by Canadian Fraud News Inc.
