ERIF Economic Information Bureau not merely debtors register anymore

From the second half of September 2016 on, ERIF BIG S.A. Debtors Register, belonging to KRUK Group, will operate under the name ERIF Economic Information Bureau S.A. (ERIF Biuro Informacji Gospodarczej - ERIF BIG). As the promoter of the concept of positive information on the Polish market, the company wants the new name to be neutral, and not suggest that the ERIF database contains exclusively economic information on debts of companies and consumers - a notion that would be inaccurate, given that about 50% of the data contained in the ERIF Economic Information Bureau are mostly positive information on timely paid loans, bills, invoices and other liabilities. The change of the name and the logotype is implemented under the slogan "ERIF builds history". This is to emphasize that the building of a positive credit history is gaining significance also in Poland - following in the footsteps of other mature markets and information exchange systems for credit takers and clients of product and service providers.

ERIF BIG, apart from changing its name, will also refresh its logotype. The new graphic is modern, optimistic, interesting, inspiring, and memorable. It gives an impression of energy, motion and dynamism - the features that perfectly reflect the attributes of active exchange of economic details through ERIF BIG between all participants of the market .  It additionally suggests that the Company standing behind it is ready for dialogue – The values that the new logotype reflects have been close to us ever since the establishment of ERIF – says president of the board, Edyta Szymczak. – That is why we wanted to manifest them adequately. Another purpose of the implemented changes is building the image of a company specializing not only in acquiring and sharing negative information, but also collecting positive information from a wide array of service providers. The availability of comprehensive data on liability settlement history of consumers and companies will bring a lasting and positive change in the attitude towards all categories of creditors of financial and non-financial services. The step we have made is a visible sign of that we perceive both negative and positive information as equally important for risk assessment and claims management. It is this aspect that we particularly wanted to emphasize through our new image. That is also why we resigned from the name "Debtors Register", which failed to fully reflect the scope of our business. The one thing that will remain unchanged, however, is: we will keep safeguarding contractual reliability and economic transparency.

Ever since its creation, ERIF BIG S.A. Debtors Register has been driving changes in the economic information exchange business in Poland. The company is the first and only so far to regularly verify the size of its economic data base.  To fulfill its promise of reliability, it publishes a quarterly report containing data on the size and structure of the base, which is certified by an independent audit & advisory body. The company was the first in Poland to also start organizing large educational actions on the functioning of economic information bureaus. Through them, it not only explained the importance of negative information - a tool that has functioned on the market for long - but also put an emphasis on the benefits of building a positive history of successfully meeting liabilities. Historically, economic information bureaus would be only associated with negative economic information, commonly known as debt or debtor registers. ERIF BIG has long promoted the idea of access to comprehensive information on the client's history of paying liabilities among business environments related to risk assessment. It also emphasized that this is possible through a technologically and legally safe institution that is a economic information bureau. Nowadays, the market is expecting a broader look on their potential clients or contractors.

Positive information, e.g. on regular adjustment of monthly bills or timely repayment of even a small credit, says much more about the client and his financial credibility than absence of any information on his credit history whatsoever. Thanks to access to positive information, both individual clients, as well as entrepreneurs can better protect their interest. They also have the possibility of conscious building of transparent payments history, and maintaining adequate creditworthiness. Other countries, not only in Europe, have used similar comprehensive solutions for years. This is confirmed by results of the ACCIS survey (The European Credit Information Landscape An analysis of a survey of credit bureaus in Europe) and World Bank Group (Global Credit Reporting Program).

ERIF BIG S.A. as early as 2012 started a project related to building the idea of positive payments history under the name "infoPozytywni", and in 2015 introduced a new holiday into the calendar - the Positive Information Day. It is celebrated on May 21, and is one of the elements of educational actions conducted by the company. Its purpose is to make companies, institutions, as well as the consumers themselves realize the value of this type of information shared through economic information bureaus, that are necessary for the assessment of creditworthiness.  As on July 4, 2016, the ERIF database contained over 5 mil. cases of total value nearly 25 bil. PLN, out of which 2.1 mil. are positive information.