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TransUnion is an American consumer credit reporting agency. TransUnion collects and aggregates information on over one billion individual consumers in over thirty countries including "200 million files profiling nearly every credit-active consumer in the United States". Its customers include over 65,000 businesses. Based in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, TransUnion's 2014 revenue was
US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
1.3 billion. It is the smallest of the three largest credit agencies, along with Experian and Equifax (known as the "Big Three"). TransUnion also markets
credit report :''This article deals with the general concept of the term credit history. For detailed information about the same topic in the United States, see Credit score in the United States.'' A credit history is a record of a borrower's responsible repa ...
s and other credit and fraud-protection products directly to consumers. Like all credit reporting agencies, the company is required by U.S. law to provide consumers with one free credit report every year. Additionally a growing segment of Transunion's business is its business offerings that use advanced big data, particularly its deep AI-TLOxp product.


History

TransUnion was originally formed in 1968 as a holding company for
Union Tank Car Company Union Tank Car Company or UTLX is a railway equipment leasing, rail car maintenance, and rail car manufacturing company headquartered in metro Chicago, Illinois. A direct descendant of Standard Oil, the firm today is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. ...
, making TransUnion a descendant of Standard Oil through Union Tank Car Company. The following year, it acquired the Credit Bureau of Cook County, which possessed and maintained 3.6 million credit accounts. In 1981, a Chicago-based holding company, The
Marmon Group Marmon Group is an American industrial holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois; founded by Jay Pritzker and Robert Pritzker in 1953 (as Colson Corporation), it has been held by the Berkshire Hathaway group since 2013. It owns compani ...
, acquired TransUnion for approximately $688 million.
Marmon Group Marmon Group is an American industrial holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois; founded by Jay Pritzker and Robert Pritzker in 1953 (as Colson Corporation), it has been held by the Berkshire Hathaway group since 2013. It owns compani ...
In 2010,
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners Goldman Sachs Capital Partners is the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs, focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments globally. The group, which is based in New York City, was founded in 1986. As of 2019, GS Capital Partners had ...
and
Advent International Advent International is a global private equity firm focused on buyouts of companies in Western and Central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on international buyouts, growth and strategic restructuring in five core ...
acquired it from
Madison Dearborn Partners Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; ba ...
In 2014, TransUnion acquired
Hank Asher Hank Asher (May 9, 1951 – January 11, 2013)
's data company TLO. On June 25, 2015, TransUnion became a publicly traded company for the first time, trading under the symbol TRU. TransUnion eventually began to offer products and services for both businesses and consumers. For businesses, TransUnion updated its traditional credit score offering to include trended data that helps predict consumer repayment and debt behavior. This product, referred to as CreditVision, launched in October 2013. Its SmartMove™ service facilitates credit and background checks for landlords. The service also provides credit and background checks for partner companies, such as RentSpree. In September 2013, the company acquired eScan Data Systems of
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, to provide post-service eligibility determination support to hospitals and healthcare systems. The technology was integrated into TransUnion's ClearIQ platform, which tracks patients demographic and insurance related information to support benefit verification. In November 2013, TransUnion acquired TLO LLC, a company that leverages data in support of its investigative and risk management tools. Its TLOxp technology aggregates data sets and uses a proprietary algorithm to uncover relationships between data. In 2014, a TransUnion analysis found that reporting rental payment information to credit bureaus can positively affect credit scores. As a result, TransUnion initiated a service called ResidentCredit, making it easy for property owners to report data about their tenants on a monthly basis. These reports include the amount each tenant pays, the timeliness of their last payment, and any remaining balance the tenant currently owes. As a result, some companies have started reporting rent payment information to TransUnion. In 2015, TransUnion acquired Trustev, a digital verification company specializing in online fraud for $21 million, minus debts. In 2017, TransUnion acquired FactorTrust, a consumer reporting agency specializing in alternative credit data. In mid-April 2018, TransUnion announced it intended to buy UK-based CallCredit Information Group for $1.4 billion, subject to regulatory approval. On 1 December 2021, TransUnion completed the acquisition of Neustar


Legal and regulatory issues

In 2003, Judy Thomas of
Klamath Falls, Oregon Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city was ...
, was awarded $5.3 million in a successful lawsuit against TransUnion. The award was made on the grounds that it took her six years to get TransUnion to remove incorrect information in her credit report. In 2006, after spending two years trying to correct erroneous credit information that resulted from being a victim of identity theft, a fraud victim named Sloan filed suit against all three of the US's largest credit agencies. TransUnion and Experian settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In Sloan v. Equifax, a jury awarded Sloan $351,000. "She wrote letters. She called them. They saw the problem. They just didn't fix it," said her attorney, A. Hugo Blankingship III. TransUnion has also been criticized for concealing charges. Many users complained of not being aware of a $17.95/month charge for holding a TransUnion account. In March 2015, following a settlement with the New York Attorney-General, TransUnion, along with other credit reporting companies, Experian and Equifax, agreed to help consumers with errors and red flags on credit reports. Under the new settlement, credit-reporting firms are required to use trained employees to respond when a consumer flags a mistake on their file. These employees are responsible for communicating with the lender and resolving the dispute. In January 2017, TransUnion was fined $5.5 million and ordered to pay $17.6 million in restitution, along with Equifax, by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The federal agency fined the companies "for deceiving consumers about the usefulness and actual cost of credit scores they sold to consumers". The CFPB also said the companies "lured consumers into costly recurring payments for credit-related products with false promises". Credit bureaus had the most complaints of all companies filed with the CFPB by consumers in 2018, with 34% of all complaints directed at Transunion, Equifax, and Experian that year. In June 2017, a California jury ruled against Transunion with a $60 million verdict in the largest
Fair Credit Reporting Act The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 ''et seq'', is U.S. Federal Government legislation enacted to promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of consumer information contained in the files of consumer reporting agencies. It ...
(FCRA) verdict in history. The San Francisco federal court jury awarded $60 million in damages to consumers who were falsely reported on a government list of terrorists and other security threats. The plaintiffs' team of attorneys at Francis & Mailman, P.C. partnered with another California-based firm in the class action. Following up on this, in April 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said TransUnion "incapable of operating its businesses lawfully".


Security issues

On 13 October 2017, the website for TransUnion's Central American division was reported to have been redirecting visitors to websites that attempted
drive-by download Drive-by download is of two types, each concerning the unintended download of computer software from the Internet: # Authorized drive-by downloads are downloads which a person has authorized but without understanding the consequences (e.g. dow ...
s of malware disguised as
Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
updates. The attack had been performed by hijacking third-party analytics
JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
from
Digital River Digital River is a private company that provides global e-commerce, payments and marketing services. In 2013, Digital River processed more than $30 billion in online transactions. Digital River is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Compan ...
brand FireClick. On 17 March 2022, TransUnion South Africa disclosed that hackers breached one of their servers and allegedly stole data of 54 million customers, demanding a ransom to not release it, the group N4ughtysecTU claims responsibility.


See also

* Equifax * Experian * TransUnion Canada


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Transunion Financial services companies of the United States Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Chicago American companies established in 1968 Financial services companies established in 1968 2015 initial public offerings Credit scoring Data collection 1968 establishments in Illinois Data companies Data brokers