United States

In the United States, the legal term for a credit bureau under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is consumer reporting agency.

Most credit history information is collected and kept by the three national credit bureaus, Experian (which purchased the files and other assets of TRW), Equifax, and TransUnion. These organizations are for-profit entities and possess no governmental affiliation.

Innovis is another consumer reporting agency. Starting out as ACB Services in 1970 by Associated Credit Bureaus, in 1989 it was purchased and renamed Consumers Credit Associates (CCA) and began to gain commitments from major credit grantors to contribute data. In 1997, First Data Corporation (FDC) purchased CCA and renamed this division Innovis Data Solutions, Inc. In April of 1999, CBC Companies purchased Innovis Data Services from First Data Corporation.

PRBC (Pay Rent, Build Credit, Inc.) is a national alternative credit bureau. Incorporated in March of 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.

[edit] Tort liability for business defamation

In the case of Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, 472 U.S. 749 (1985) the U.S. Supreme Court held that a credit reporting agency may be liable if it was careless in reporting an impending or past bankruptcy filing of a business that is not a public figure