SBA’s Reporting of Loan Data to a Commercial Credit Reporting Agency

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is issuing this management advisory to bring to U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) attention concerns regarding the SBA’s Reporting of Loan Data to a Commercial Credit Reporting Agency. These issues require immediate attention and action by SBA to ensure the commercial loan data it provides to Experian can be effectively incorporated into Experian’s commercial credit database and analyzed.

Experian, as one of the three primary commercial credit reporting agencies, collects data on millions of businesses and combines the data to create business credit reports and calculate a credit rating. These business credit reports are used when businesses apply for a business loan, establish payment terms with a new vendor, or obtain any type of business credit.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) provided Experian its commercial loan data; however, SBA was unaware that Experian had not analyzed or incorporated this loan data into its commercial credit files from October 2018 to June 2023. According to Experian, it could not use the data because, in 2018, SBA did not submit it timely. Experian stated that SBA needed to validate the integrity of the data before it could resume using it.

To ensure SBA provides Experian with complete, accurate, and timely loan data sufficient to be incorporated into Experian’s business credit files and establish an applicant’s creditworthiness, we suggested SBA (1) coordinate with Experian to ensure SBA commercial loan data is reported in a manner that can be included in the credit reporting agency’s commercial credit files, (2) establish communication protocols with Experian to address, resolve, and monitor commercial credit reporting issues, and (3) establish a written agreement for reporting loan data with Experian and other major commercial credit reporting agencies, as applicable.