Credit reporting organizations

For years, credit reporting for individuals and businesses came from the many regional credit bureaus across the U.S. But today, more and more credit reporting comes from national firms. The three major credit sources in the U.S. that focus largely on consumer credit are Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Each uses their own but similar statistical method for analyzing the data to calculate the credit score.

Businesses often subscribe to the credit services from business credit bureaus such as Dun & Bradstreet to obtain credit information for making decisions to extend credit to their customers. Corporate creditworthiness bureaus such as Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch IBCA, rate the relative risk of corporate debt for potential investors.