Credit Bureaus

Experian

According to its mission statement, Experian uses the power of information to help its clients target prospective customers, manage existing customer relationships, and identify opportunities for profitable growth. Through its Web-based products and services, Experian enables clients to conduct secure and profitable e-commerce. Experian is a subsidiary of The Great Universal Stores PLC and has headquarters in Nottingham, U.K., and Orange, California. Its 12,000 employees support clients in over 50 countries and annual company sales are $1.5 billion.

Trans Union

Trans Union is the third primary source of consumer credit information and also offers risk and portfolio management services. They serve a broad range of industries that routinely evaluate credit risk or verify information about their customers, which includes financial and banking services, insurance agencies, retailers, collection agencies, communication and energy companies, and hospitals. Trans Union operates nationwide through a network of offices and independent credit bureaus. They have many subsidiaries and divisions in the U.S. and abroad.

COMMERCIAL CREDIT BUREAUS

The Internet has created a number of changes in the commercial credit reporting business. Electronic commerce and online business-to-business (B2B) transactions have expanded the need for commercial credit checks to include small businesses and foreign firms. In the meantime, the instantaneous transfer of information over the Internet has caused client companies to expand their expectations about the manner in which they receive credit reports. "With more companies doing business with smaller firms and companies overseas, obtaining credit information on those businesses is more important today than ever," Demby noted. "Customers are demanding more information faster, and in a format that allows them to make rapid-fire decisions about whether or not to grant credit."

The changing demands of client companies has increased competition among commercial credit bureaus. Many new players have sprung up online, where they are collecting newly available data and distributing it at a lower cost than traditional reporting firms. For example, CreditRiskMonitor.com, established in 1997, is an Internet-based credit reporting agency that provides up-to-the-minute data and credit analysis on 35,000 public U.S. companies worldwide.

In addition to increased competition from Internet-based reporting agencies, commercial credit bureaus face several new business trends in the twenty-first century. For example, more commercial credit reporting agencies are beginning to offer information on small businesses, which represent an increasing share of the overall market. Consumer credit expert Experian has begun offering a commercial credit service that combines a small business's financial information with personal information about the small business owner to create a risk score. Another emerging trend involves providing credit information in real time in order to assist clients in making quick decisions about whether or not to extend credit. Instead of providing a mass of financial information, many commercial credit bureaus are moving toward evaluating the information in advance and providing clients with credit scores.

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