Credit Bureau

About Credit Bureau's

In the United States, the legal term for a credit bureau under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is consumer reporting agency — often abbreviated in the industry as CRA. In the United States, key credit bureau consumer protections and general rules or governing guidelines for both the credit bureaus and data furnishers are the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA), and Regulation B.

Two government bodies share responsibility for the oversight and accuracy of credit bureau data. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has oversight for the consumer credit bureaus. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks with regard to credit bureau reporting.

Most US consumer credit information is collected and kept by the four national credit reporting agencies: Experian (which purchased the files and other assets of TRW), Equifax, TransUnion, and Innovis (which was purchased from First Data Corporation in 1999 by CBC Companies). These organizations are for-profit entities and possess no government affiliation. Though they are competitors, they have formed a trade organization called the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) to establish reporting standards. Current reporting standards accepted by the four US CRAs are Metro and Metro2. The Metro2 standard is defined in the annual CDIA publication, the Consumer Credit Reporting Guide, which is updated September of each year.

PRBC (Pay Rent, Build Credit, Inc.) is a national alternative credit bureau. Incorporated in March 2002, PRBC enables consumers to self-enroll and build a positive credit file by reporting their on-time payments (such as rent, utilities, cable, and phone) that are not automatically reported to the three traditional credit bureaus.

In the US, there are three business or commercial bureau repositories: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Small Business Financial Exchange (SBFE).