Creditinfo is a global

credit bureau A credit bureau is a data collection agency that gathers account information from various creditors and provides that information to a consumer reporting agency in the United States, a credit reference agency in the United Kingdom, a credit report ...

and information services group with operations in more than 33 countries. As of 2020 the company employs over 450 people with corporate headquarters in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The company was initially created in 1997 as Lánstraust ehf, later taking up the name Creditinfo.

History

The sole founder of Lánstraust ehf was

Reynir Grétarsson Reynir F. Grétarsson (born 29 December 1972) is an Icelandic entrepreneur, philanthropist, Icelandic map collector and author of "About Mapping Iceland" Founder and former CEO of Creditinfo Group, a multinational credit bureau and risk managem ...

, with two other co-founders bringing their share capitals later the same year. One of these partners left after a few months, the other partner left after 3 years. In 2003, Lánstraust ehf was renamed and established as Creditinfo. In 2005, Graham Platts and two other former executives of

Experian Experian plc is a multinational corporation, multinational data broker and consumer credit reporting company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Experian collects and aggregates information on more than 1 billion people and businesses including ...

became shareholders in the company, buying a total of 17% of the shares. They remained shareholders until 2013, when the company itself bought back their share in the company, at that time 31,5%. In 2009, Creditinfo and

Schufa Schufa Holding AG (; English: ''General Credit Protection Agency''), proper spelling SCHUFA, is a German private credit bureau supported by creditors. It has its headquarters in Wiesbaden. Schufa's purpose is to protect its clients from credit r ...

signed a contract and created Creditinfo SCHUFA GmbH. This cooperation was terminated in 2011 due to conflicts of interest. In March 2012, Creditinfo established the first licensed credit bureau in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. In February 2013, Creditinfo signed an agreement to provide credit bureau software to

Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB, ; ) is the central bank of Afghanistan. It regulates all banking and monetary transactions in Afghanistan. Established in 1939, the bank is wholly government-owned. It is active in developing policies to promote financial inclusion and a ...

, and in June 2013, Creditinfo was granted a full operation licence to the

Bank of Tanzania The Bank of Tanzania () is the central bank of the Tanzania, United Republic of Tanzania. It is responsible for issuing the national currency, the Tanzanian shilling. The bank was established under the Bank of Tanzania Act 1965. However, in 19 ...

. Creditinfo Group is listed in "Doing Business 2013" publication issued by

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

and

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

Notable acquisitions

The acquisitions of ICECREDITINFO and Upplýsingaþjónustan in 1998 eliminated all the existing Icelandic competition. In 2004, Creditinfo acquired a media monitoring service called Fjölmiðlavaktin. In 2015, Creditinfo acquired Credit Bureau in Morocco from Experian. In August 2015, Creditinfo acquired Krediidiinfo in Estonia from Experian. In August 2016, Creditinfo acquired VisualDNA’s Credit and Risk business from Imagini. Creditinfo operates in the business-to-business sector selling consumer credit reports and related analytics.

Countries of Operation

Subsidiaries

*Creditinfo Guyana

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em

External links