Equifax
Equifax or Equifax Credit Information Services Private Limited (ECIS) is a consumer credit company (CIC) or credit bureau that is licensed by the Reserve Bank of India, is the Indian counterpart of Equifax Incorporated, founded in 1899 in the United States, since then it has spread credit reporting agencies across 15 countries. Currently Equifax has its headquarters in Mumbai, and branch offices in Bengaluru and Delhi.
Equifax Inc with seven Indian financial institutions (State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Prime Ltd, Sundaram FINANCE Limited, Bank of India, Religare Finvest Ltd, and Union Bank of India) jointly venture as ECIS, and have more than 1300 registered members.
Role of Equifax in Credit Score Assessment
Equifax produced credit information reports (CIR) and credit scores (just like CIBIL, but some methods of for assessing credit score may differ for Equifax), customer under Credit Information Regulation Act 2005. It helps know credit behaviour of customers and lenders can judge the creditworthiness with repayment capacity of those people.
Both borrowers and lenders can access the Equifax database to review credit reports. Some other products that Equifax offers are:
- Verification and value added services: such as product and pricing design, credit risk and fraud management, portfolio management, collection products and solutions, process redesign, governance and monitoring frameworks, and industry diagnostics.
- Multi bureau: It is a single point of inquiry to consolidate data from several credit bureaus.
- Microfinance bureau: In 2011, Equifax had set up its microfinance exchange to compete in the mentioned industry, partnering with MFIN (Microfinance Institutions Network).
- Consumer credit bureau:It helps lenders decide on right assets for qualified consumers by offering timely review on their credit information. Along with credit activities, Equifax partakes latest operations platform and technology to maintain credit information and updates the same on regular basis.