A credit bureau is a company that provides the credit information and history of consumers.
This helps the credit provider to assess the credit worthiness of the consumer - for example, the ability to pay back a loan or to pay their rent.
Credit bureaux collect financial information on individuals and businesses from data providers with which the bureaux have a relationship.
Data providers can be businesses, credit providers, debt collection agencies and the courts that the consumer or business has had a relationship or experience with. Data providers report the experience with the consumer to the credit bureaux.
The data provided to the bureaux as well as the data collected independently by the bureaux are then aggregated into the bureaux's databases.
The resulting information is then made available on request to members for the purposes of credit assessment and scoring.