Equifax, or Equifax Credit Information Services Private Limited (ECIS), is a consumer credit company (CIC) or credit bureau licenced by the Reserve Bank of India. It is the Indian counterpart of Equifax Incorporated, which was founded in 1899 in the United States and has since expanded to 15 countries. Equifax’s headquarters are currently located in Mumbai, with branch offices in Bengaluru and Delhi.
ECIS is a joint venture between Equifax Inc and 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).
Credit Bureaus of Credit Information Companies collect, preserve, and provide credit information (connected to credit cards and loans) for individuals from banks and other member institutions, and share it with them in order to determine an individual’s CIBIL score and creditworthiness. This assists bank authorities in determining whether or not to lend money and, if so, under what terms and conditions. It’s important to understand that CIC isn’t a watchdog. It caters to information on salaries, savings accounts, fixed deposits, and other information that members do not divulge.
Equifax’s Role in Credit Score Evaluation
Under the Credit Information Regulation Act 2005, Equifax created credit information reports (CIR) and credit scores (similar to CIBIL, however some techniques of assessing credit score may differ for Equifax). It aids in understanding client credit behavior so that lenders may assess creditworthiness based on payback capabilities.
Credit records can be accessed by both borrowers and lenders through the Equifax database. Equifax also provides the following services:
- Product and price design, credit risk and fraud management, portfolio management, collection products and solutions, process redesign, governance and monitoring frameworks, and industry diagnostics are examples of verification and value-added services.
- Multi-bureau: This is a single point of contact for data from multiple credit bureaus.
- Microfinance bureau: Equifax launched its microfinance exchange in 2011, partnering with MFIN to participate in the market (Microfinance Institutions Network).
- Consumer credit bureau: It assists lenders in determining the appropriate assets for qualifying clients by providing quick credit information reviews. Equifax uses the most up-to-date operations platform and technology to store credit information and update it on a regular basis, in addition to credit activities.
Difference Between CIBIL and Equifax
Now that India has two credit bureaus, CIBIL and Equifax, the logical question is, “Which is better?” Is it practical to get credit scores from both companies? Many Indian banks are already looking at various credit reports and are expected to look at multiple sources of information before lending to anyone, which may surprise you. Having a credit record and credit score from two credit bureaus will therefore be quite beneficial. So, having a good credit score with both CIBIL and Equifax works in your favor because it gives the banks double assurance that you are a good customer.
If you get a terrible grade, though, “God help you”… In that instance, getting a loan would be incredibly difficult. In addition, if there are any inconsistencies in the scores, banks can assign more weight to one score and less to the other, or just choose the score that feels most appropriate. So go ahead and apply for your Equifax credit report if you want to check it.
Is there a difference between a Credit score and a CIBIL score?
Credit bureaus assign a score to each customer. One of the credit bureaus is CIBIL. Others include Experian, Equifax, and CRIF Highmark. Everyone will have their own system for calculating credit scores after cibil score login. According to my knowledge, CIBIL, Experian, and Equifax all have roughly the same score. But there was this thing called CRIF Highmark, and I was astonished to see that my score was 250 points lower than others. Fortunately, lenders use cut-off marks to smooth off such differences.
As a result, CIBIL is just a business. One of their responsibilities is to assign credit scores. People have been accustomed to referring to a credit score as a CIBIL score.