Chapter 1: Credit Reporting Industry
IN THIS LESSON
Confluent Strategies
Who we are
We’ve served as strategic business partners to our customers for more than 75 years, providing them with the Equifax data, insights, and solutions they need to meet their business goals confidently.
Headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, and actively managed by a board of directors, Confluent Strategies partners with a wide range of financial institutions, mortgage lenders, and other industries across the United States.
What we do
We specialize in consumer credit, commercial, and mortgage credit reporting, verifications and employment screenings, and association management to trade groups, mortgage lenders, and other industry organizations.
As an Equifax Sales Agent, we work closely with our partners to strategically leverage Equifax’s full suite of robust products and solutions to more than 2,000 unique partners throughout the U.S.
We are a leading provider of Equifax data, insights, and knowledge; we analyze our partners’ specific business needs and strategically recommend solutions that will directly impact their business and enhance their consumers’ experience.
How we work
We want what our customers ultimately want—to increase revenue. To do that, they need a partner that is invested in and committed to their success. More than a vendor, they need an industry and market expert to analyze their specific business needs and strategically recommend solutions that will directly impact their business.
That’s exactly what we do.
Confluent Strategies is our customers’ direct connection to Equifax. And because we commit to intimately knowing and understanding their day-to-day business, we’re equipped to provide them with actionable insights and relevant solutions to make them successful. It’s what makes us different.
We research. We discover. We consult. We work with customers through the entire cycle. We help them discover what they need. And we don’t sell products—we provide solutions that will help them succeed.
Retail Alliance
Since 1903, the founding principles of Retail Alliance have centered on the core value of service to our membership and to the retail community. In 1902, the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce determined that retailers’ needs were different from most businesses. Thus, the Retail Merchants Association was created a year later.
The issues that the new association addressed were timeless in nature. They included networking opportunities, transportation, advertising, licensing, taxes, holiday closings, etc.
During the early years of the association, the extension of credit by retailers was a crucial part of day-to-day business. With the creation of the Retail Merchants Association (RMA) in 1903, RMA was in the right place at the right time to cater to the credit reporting needs of its members. In 1906, the purchase of the Norfolk Bureau of Credit was the ideal fit for the organization.
Throughout the years, RMA has focused on credit reporting initiatives. Through automation and other peripheral services (mortgage credit reporting and recovery services), the credit bureau became a major revenue generator.
Changes in technology, automation, and national mergers supplanted the need for a local credit bureau and its peripheral services.
The credit reporting files were sold to Equifax, with RA Business Solutions continuing to represent Equifax as the Sales Agent in Hampton Roads.
Retail Alliance continues as the association and non-profit arm of Retail Alliance, providing advocacy, benefits, and education to retailers throughout the region.
The goals and strategies employed over the last century serve as a solid foundation for the coming years as the expansion of Retail Alliance continues, and we strive for continuous improvement of offerings and representation for all local retailers.
Resellers
Resellers are a specific type of consumer reporting agency (CRA). They are consumer reporting agencies but do not maintain their own databases. They submit requests to the “Big Three” to get information regarding a consumer on behalf of an end-user that has contracted with them to gather information on a consumer.
Resellers act as conduits, just passing on information from another consumer reporting agency.
Reseller duties include:
Inform CRA from which the report was obtained and the identity and permissible purposes of the end user.
Maintain reasonable procedures to ensure that the end-user has a permissible purpose.
Passing dispute onto originating CRA.
Resellers are not the originator of information and, as such, are not required to conduct reinvestigations or required to provide consumer disclosures.
