Credit bureau

A credit bureau, also known as a credit bureau or credit rating agency, is engaged in collecting, processing and managing credit information about individuals and companies. This information is sold on to a third party, typically a company, bank or similar.

Credit information is used by companies to gain financial insight into customers so that they can perform credit checks when granting credit, loans, or other financial services that extend over a shorter or longer period of time.

A credit bureau often receives information from companies that want to register a customer as a bad payer. This information is recorded and processed at the credit bureau, after which it can be passed on to third parties who must have a legitimate purpose for receiving it.

In Denmark, there are 14 approved credit reporting agencies. The largest are Experian with their RKI, Visma Rating and Dun & Bradstreet.

In order to collect, process and disclose credit information, you must be approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency.

Relevant legislation includes the Executive Order of the Financial Business Act, Chapter 20, "Credit Rating Agencies", and Chapter 5 of the Personal Data Act.

You can see the list of all approved credit reference agencies on the Danish Data Protection Agency's website.

Why use a credit bureau?

Businesses buy data from credit bureaus in order to make accurate credit assessments of their customers. The main purpose of these ratings is to protect against bad payers and reduce financial risk, especially when granting large amounts of credit.

Credit bureaus can also offer ongoing monitoring of customers' financial conditions. This means that companies can be alerted to changes in a customer's creditworthiness, such as a sudden negative change. This is often referred to as credit monitoring.

Some agencies offer additional services such as customer data verification, including name and address verification, which can be subscribed to ensure that the company always has up-to-date information about customers.

Sources of information

Credit bureaus get their data from a wide range of sources, including public registers such as CPR and CVR as well as private companies and debt collection agencies. This data can be sold in its raw form or processed to provide a more holistic view of a customer's financial situation.

Qatchr: The modern credit platform

At Qatchr, our own online platform, we offer all the standard services of a traditional credit bureau, but with a modern approach. Our unique platform makes it easy to search for information on individuals and businesses to run credit checks, where we provide credit information to our customers.

Our platform pulls data from both public and private sources, including CPR and CVR as well as information from Collectia, the leading Nordic debt collection company. With Qatchr, you can either perform one-time checks or subscribe to customer data to receive updates when customer information changes.

Try Qatchr Today

Contact us for a free, no-obligation demo of our system and see how Qatchr can help you make better credit decisions and protect your business from financial risk.

Brief summary

• Credit bureau: Collects and provides financial information about individuals and businesses.
• Purpose: Assessing creditworthiness to protect against bad payers.
• Services: Credit checks, customer financial monitoring, customer data verification.
• Sources: Public registers (CPR, CVR) and private companies.
• Qatchr: Modern platform that offers both one-time and subscription-based credit checks that pull credit information for your own customer credit rating.