The history of Interfax Group begins in 1989, when it was established as the first non-state news agency in the USSR.
It became a pioneer in providing objective, comprehensive and reliable coverage of key political and economic developments in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
Over the past 30 years, Interfax has remained true to the principles of independence, accuracy and reliability that its founders proclaimed in 1989 and has become one of the most frequently cited sources in global media, commanding the respect of its audiences around the world.
Interfax has demonstrated a unique ability to anticipate the trends and needs of the information market in advance and to find adequate responses to the challenges of the digital revolution.
This encouraged a shift in its business strategy to the creation of state-of-the art business information solutions rather than traditional news services.
Today Interfax offers both high-quality news content and innovative professional IT solutions that make use of sophisticated B2B analytical tools.
The latter product category accounts for 85 per cent of the Group’s revenues. The IT product range includes digital platforms for delivering information, systems for professional analysis of companies, industries and markets and integrated solutions for risk management, compliance, due diligence, KYC procedures, assessment of reputational risk, media analysis and monitoring.
Interfax’s IT solutions help governments, businesses and financial institutions all over the world identify, assess, understand and effectively mitigate risks related to money-laundering, corruption, crime, financing of terrorism and more.
Thousands of leading international corporations and banks, as well as government agencies worldwide, trust us to provide the information they need to make informed decisions.
As part of its business strategy to become a leader in the global information market, Interfax has formed strategic partnerships and entered into agreements with leading players in the sphere of financial and corporate information such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Experian, Dun & Bradstreet, Moody’s, Business Wire, Lexis-Nexis and Standard & Poor’s.
Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters terminals carry Interfax’s financial and business news coverage of Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, providing thousands of clients around the world a way to keep an eye on this huge and highly competitive Eurasian space. Interfax’s news content is also integrated into the world’s largest media database, Dow Jones Factiva.
Such partnerships, built on equal terms with international giants, are one of Interfax’s strongest competitive advantages. They demonstrate the high regard with which Interfax Group is viewed in the global community of information and business solutions providers.
January
Interfax publishes textbook for journalists based on internal information standard
January
On January 27th Interfax Europe LTD and The Russian Business Council Dubai hosted an online round table “Russia & the GCC: Overview of current Business Environment”
March
SPARK-Interfax launches new Business Reputation Assessment service
March
SPARK-Interfax has again topped the RAEX Rating Agency's (RAEX Analytics) annual ranking of information and analytics systems for verification of counterparties by a substantial margin.
April
Interfax Group and the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) have signed an agreement on partnering in integration of modern digital solutions into educational and scientific processes.
June
FAS, Interfax agree to cooperate on training, upgrading qualifications of purchasing professionals
June
Interfax launches issuer risk assessment scoring
June
Russian-Chinese MSU-BIT University becomes first foreign participant in Interfax Universities Program
July
Interfax launches new version of RusBonds portal together with Moscow exchange
October
Moscow Exchange, Interfax automate classification of securities for retail investors
October
Interfax Group has joined a project to counter the circulation of untrue publicly important information via the Internet by acting as an organization providing fact-checking services to major national online communications portals.
October
Interfax-Kazakhstan: 25 years on media market
December
Interfax Information Services Group, continuing its digital transformation, is restructuring and spinning off its business developing analytical IT systems, which has become the main strategic direction of the Group's growth, into a separate company.
January
Interfax holds its annual SPARK-Interfax conference on business security and risk assessment, with nearly one thousand attendees.
March
SPARK-Interfax topped the RAEX Rating Agency's (RAEX Analytics) ranking of information and analytical systems for verification of counterparties.
July
Interfax has developed a module that determines the arm's length range for transactions with European interdependent companies in order to demonstrate the market nature of these transactions in tax documents.
October
The Raiffeisen Business Online bank now provides a service for small businesses to conduct due diligence based on SPARK-Interfax data.
December
Interfax to combine all services for purchasing market under Marker brand
December
Business risks amid the pandemic: How to assess them first
January
Interfax holds its annual SPARK-Interfax conference on business security and risk assessment, with nearly one thousand attendees.
January
Interfax develops a new service for suppliers on the procurement market. MARKER makes it easy to monitor tenders, assess the potential for increasing sales in various market segments, organise business processes related to procurement, analyse why tenders
October
Interfax and the United Credit Bureau (UCB) have launched an analytical service for evaluating the credit risk of companies, aimed at boosting the access of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to bank financing.
April
Interfax integrates data on 300 million companies worldwide from D&B and information on real estate from Rosreestr (the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography) into SPARK.
May
The National Payment Card System and Interfax sign an agreement on launching a new service designed to minimise risks for payment system participants.
June
The National Settlement Depository (NSD) and Interfax launch the RU Data Price service for valuing and estimating the risks of bonds based on information provided by the NSD Valuation Centre and Thomson Reuters.
November
Interfax develops three new indices to help PR professionals conduct reputation management tasks for companies, banks and government organisations. These are available as part of SCAN, our system for monitoring media and assessing reputations.
January
Interfax and Fitch Solutions agree to work together to distribute Fitch Credit ratings in Russia.
March
Interfax secures the right to distribute Moody's credit ratings in the Russian market.
July
Interfax secures the right to distribute credit ratings for S&P Global Ratings in Russia through its EFiR terminal.
February
SCAN, our professional solution for assessing reputational risk, launches services for monitoring and analysing social networks.
June
SPARK-Interfax starts to provide information about legal entities in Moldova.
November
Interfax and Dun & Bradstreet launch a new version of www.dnb.ru.
December
Interfax's annual conference on business security and risk management in Moscow, SPARK-2017, sets a record for attendance.
February
The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation (the permanent government body of financial control) signs a cooperation agreement with Interfax Group envisaging the use of the SPARK-Interfax and SPARK-Marketing systems to monitor and control government
April
Interfax Group launches the new ASTRA (Automated System for Transfer Analysis) service, which makes it possible to determine the market level of prices in transactions between affiliated companies and to automate the preparation of declarations and docume
November
Interfax presents a fundamentally new version of SPARK-Interfax: SPARK 3.0.
March
Interfax presents the ASTRA service to help with the preparation of documents to meet legislative requirements on transfer pricing.
September
Professor Oliver Boyd-Barrett's book Interfax: Breaking into Global News, detailing the history and development of Interfax, is published. Interfax celebrates the 25th anniversary of its founding.
December
The United Credit Bureau (a joint venture of Interfax, Experian and Sberbank) launches its online service and opens an office in Moscow for working with individuals.
September
SPARK-Interfax adds a new risk indicator, the Financial Risk Index, which helps to assess the financial health of a company.
November
Interfax launches the Corporate Information Disclosure Center, a comprehensive Internet resource for corporate issuers. It is one of the few agencies authorised to disclose regulatory news concerning public companies.
April
Interfax, Experian and Sberbank complete the establishment of their United Credit Bureau.
May
The SPARK-Interfax Due Diligence Index, designed to identify potential shell companies, wins the D&B Worldwide Network award.
October
The Experian Interfax Credit History Bureau is renamed the United Credit Bureau.
January
Interfax is recognised as the most cited Russian information agency in leading foreign and Russian media in 2009.
April
Interfax launches a Russian-language news service on over 2,000 Bloomberg terminals in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
November
Interfax Group and Dun & Bradstreet announce the launch of the Trade Exchange Program in Russia, a payment-monitoring system that gives companies insight into their commercial credit portfolios and allows them to identify the riskiest segments.
September
Interfax celebrates the 20th anniversary of its founding.
December
Interfax, Experian and Sberbank set up a credit bureau on the basis of Experian Interfax and Infocredit.
May
Interfax and the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation announce a joint venture in Russia.
November
Interfax and Platts launch a joint Russian-language publication on the energy market.
July
Interfax and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) launch a joint corporate information disclosure project.
October
Interfax launches its new SCAN system for monitoring and analysing media and assessing reputational risk.
March
Experian-Interfax issues its first credit history report. Interfax opens its 20th press centre in Russia.
June
Interfax Group enters into a CIS distribution and sales agreement with Business Wire, whose press releases are then translated into Russian and distributed to the Russian media and financial community via the Interfax network.
Moody's Investors Service becomes the majority shareholder in the Interfax Rating Agency, which is renamed Moody's Interfax Rating Agency. Interfax and Experian, a leading global information solutions company, form a joint venture to set up a credit bure
July
The total number of requests for information distributed by Interfax through Factiva surpasses 10 million. The Interfax Gas Information Agency (Interfax-GIA), an independent, specialised service offering the latest gas industry news, begins operations.
November
Moody's Investors Service and Interfax Group close a deal involving Moody's acquisition of a minority interest in the Interfax Rating Agency.
May
The RTS-Interfax Index Agency becomes Standard & Poor's exclusive local correspondent in Russia.
June
Moody's Investors Service, the international rating agency, signs a letter of intent to buy approximately 20% of shares in the Interfax Rating Agency.
October
Interfax wins the European Commission's annual international tender to publish the European Union's journal, Europa, in Russia. The journal covers developments in 15 EU member states and relations between the EU and Russia in their entirety.
February
Reuters begins offering Interfax news through Reuters terminals.
March
Interfax and Business Wire, the largest international system for distributing press releases, sign an exclusive agreement on cooperation in Russia.
November
Interfax concludes agreements with the London Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange and other leading world exchanges and begins receiving information from them.
October
Moody's Investors Service and the Interfax Rating Agency sign a strategic cooperation agreement.
December
RTS-Interfax becomes Russia's first specialised agency for promoting indices in collaboration with Standard and Poor’s, a world leader in the calculation of stock indicators. The RTS-Interfax Index Agency and Standard & Poor's sign a cooperation agreement
January
After signing an agreement with the Spanish news agency EFE, Interfax begins using the latter’s international news in Russian-language information products.
February
The number of requests for information from Interfax in the Reuters Business Briefing database breaks the 1 million threshold.
April
Interfax expands the range of information services it offers to users of Bloomberg terminals, giving them access to news from countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Interfax Information Services signs an agreement with F
May
Interfax wins the European Commission's annual international tender to publish the European Union's journal, Europa, in Russia. The number of requests for information from Interfax in the Reuters Business Briefing database breaks the 2 million threshold.
June
Interfax launches EFiR-Broker to provide information services for private investors using online trading systems.
October
Interfax opens an office in London.
March
Interfax, in cooperation with the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), launches the EFiR (Economics, Finance and Markets) information project.
April
Interfax signs a cooperation agreement with Reuters: Interfax news begins to be distributed in real time on Reuters terminals and through Reuters Business Briefing, the largest database of its kind in the world. Interfax becomes one of the 50 most cited
March
Interfax opens an office in Hong Kong.
August
Interfax news becomes available to users of three leading databases: the Dow Jones Publishing Company, Financial Times Information Ltd. and Knight-Ridder Information Inc.
October
The Interfax Rating Agency is created to assess the creditworthiness of Russian banks, industrial companies and regional administrations.
October
The Interfax-Kazakhstan News Agency is established to provide political, financial and economic news to subscribers both within Kazakhstan and abroad.
September
Interfax signs an agreement with Bloomberg, which begins to distribute Interfax news through its information network.
February
Interfax and the international information network Knight-Ridder Financial sign a long-term contract on the use of Interfax news in information products intended for players in global financial and commodity markets.
March
Interfax offers market participants its first information and analytical products, including ratings of Russian banks and stock indices. Interfax-100, the quarterly report on Russian banks, becomes the foremost analytical survey devoted to the country's b
April
The Petroleum Information Agency (Interfax-PIA), the first specialised news service for Russia's fuel and energy sector, begins publishing the daily bulletin Interfax-Oil.
June
Interfax signs an exclusive agreement with Japan's Kyodo News Service for the distribution of Interfax information products in Japan.
The Interfax Financial News Agency (Interfax-FNA) is set up in September and rapidly becomes the key news source for players in the Russian financial market.
The Interfax-Ukraine News Agency is launched.
Interfax launches the Soviet Business Report, the first business news bulletin in the Soviet Union.
March
Interfax strengthens its reputation as the prime source of objective news from the Soviet Union and enrols its 100th subscriber.
July
Mikhail Komissar and his colleagues from Radio Moscow launch a special Moscow-based news service for foreign media, companies and embassies to cover developments and breaking news in the USSR.