Each of the 3 major US consumer credit bureaus (CCBs) – Equifax, Experian, and Transunion – are an agglomeration of regional credit agencies, some dating back to the early 1800s. That a once fragmented industry consolidated into oligopoly is a natural consequence of the benefits that come from pooling data: a lender will go with […]
From the early 2000s to now, EET have evolved from credit reporting agencies selling indistinguishable datasets to information technology companies offering predictions[1]. Over time, all 3 bureaus have gotten bigger, their delivery mechanisms have changed (from phone calls and paper reports to software), their data sources have expanded – to encompass different kinds of data […]
This circuitous 2-parter is going to open with the consumer credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – EET), switch to FICO, and loop back to the bureaus…apologies in advance for the disorienting structure. Let’s start with Experian, which like many companies formed through motley acquisitions, wasn’t so much created as it was allowed to emerge. […]
Considering what’s at stake, we can’t dismiss the torrents of negative headlines, venemous tweets, pending AG investigations, and congressional rebukes that have justifiably buffeted Equifax on all sides, as hyperbolic grandstanding even if that’s exactly what much of it is. In a very direct and non-hokey sense, trust – that the data lenders and employers […]