Topic
Public CRS
Private CRS
Function
Banking sector oversight
Recent secondary purpose to provide credit data to supervised financial institutions
Provide lending institutions and other qualified users with timely, comprehensive, and accurate credit information
Coverage
Limited to banks and other supervised financial institutions
Broad market coverage for any user with permissible purpose
Sources of information
Banks and other supervised financial institutions
All credit grantors; public record; collateral, land title, and corporate registries; and other sources that have information related to borrowers’ paying habits
Compulsory Participation
Yes
No
Flexibility
Unlikely
Yes, responsive to clients’ needs
Products
Limited
Typically paper-based
Many, including credit scoring, fraud detection, etc.
Often electronic-based systems
Response to market
Reactive
Proactive, based on users’ needs
Consumer rights and protections
Not usually unless data privacy laws are strong
Normally mandated by law
Fee for Service
Unlikely
Yes
Reporting Threshold
Possibly
No
Positive and Negative
Normally
In Most Circumstances