A credit bureau (U.S.), or credit reference agency (UK) is a company that provides consumer credit information on individual borrowers.

This helps lenders assess credit worthiness, the ability to pay back a loan, and can affect the interest rate applied to loans. Interest rates are not the same for everyone, but instead are based on risk-based pricing, a form of price discrimination based on the different expected costs of different borrowers, as set out in their credit rating.

Credit bureaus collect and collate personal financial data on individuals and businesses from data furnishers with which the bureaus have a relationship. Data furnishers are businesses, utilities, debt collection agencies, public institutions, and the courts (i.e. public records) that a consumer or business has had a relationship or experience with.

Data furnishers report the experience with the consumer or business to the credit bureaus.

The data provided by the data furnishers as well as collected by the bureaus are then aggregated into the credit bureaus data repository or files. The resulting information is made available on request to contributing companies for the purposes of credit assessment and credit scoring.

Given the large number of consumer borrowers, these credit scores tend to be mechanistic. In other words, the different credit bureaus collect data from a variety of sources and then apply a mathematical algorithm to assess the likelihood that an individual will repay a given debt given the frequency that other individuals in similar situations have defaulted. Most consumer welfare advocates advise individuals to review their credit reports at least once per year, in order to ensure that the reports are accurate.

Commercial credit reports and scoring, which report the statistic likelihood of a business paying creditors, also exist, such as the Paydex score from Dun and Bradstreet and the Experian Intelliscore.

In the United States, the legal term for a credit bureau under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is consumer reporting agency — often abbreviated in the industry as CRA.

In the United States, key credit bureau consumer protections and general rules or governing guidelines for both the credit bureaus and data furnishers are the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA), and Regulation B.

Two government bodies share responsibility for the oversight and accuracy of credit bureau data. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has oversight for the consumer credit bureaus. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks with regard to credit bureau reporting.