Among the participants of the credit investigation market, all the institutions whose main business is to provide users with information products or services belong to the category of credit investigation information service institutions. These institutions, acting as their clients’ (consumers’) agents, inquire corporate credit reports (and/or scores) from business credit reporting agencies, use the obtained information to provide consumers with the interpretation of credit reports (or scores), provide advice on improving customers’ credit status, and recommend loan products issued by bank credit institutions that are suitable for customers’ credit status and income level. It can also file objection processing requests on behalf of clients, clarify and correct data errors or other issues found in reports. In some credit markets managed by a franchise model, the operation of credit information services needs to apply for a special license (different from the credit information license serving bank credit institutions), but the entry threshold will be lower than the requirements for credit information (credit reporting) agencies. Credit reporting agencies usually also operate credit information services, but the service content is limited to basic business such as credit status supervision, and the proportion of revenue is far smaller than the main business of the agency. In the United Kingdom, for example, revenue from credit information services accounts for 10-20% of the total revenue of credit reporting agencies.
At present, the credit information service submarket is not open in our country. Individual consumers can entrust others to check the credit report, but institutions are not allowed to act as inquiry agents. If you want to uphold the concept of “credit for the people”, the lack of credit information service sub-industry can not be said to be a major shortcoming.
Post time: Nov-21-2023