Company Profile: Veda Advantage | Credit File & Report

Veda Advantage is currently the biggest credit reference agency operating in Australia and in New Zealand. The company mainly provides credit reporting services. It is at present the main source of credit file data in the two countries. The business is also involved in related operations like credit scoring, criminal background checks, and marketing analytics. Clean Credit deals closely with Veda Advantage and regularly orders and reviews credit reports on behalf of our clients in order to review credit scores and gain information on credit listings including negative credit items.

Brief history

Veda Advantage was founded in 1967 as Credit Reference Association, which was then categorised as a mutual organisation. After 31 years (in 1998), Credit Reference Association was demutualised to become subsidiary of Data Advantage Group (also known as Credit Advantage). The company was renamed as Baycorp Advantage in 2001 following the merger of Data Advantage with Baycorp Holdings. It was listed dually on the stock exchanges at Australia (ASX) and New Zealand (NZX). Clean Credit also deals regularly with the mercantile agent, Baycorp in the capacity of dealing with faulty or incorrect negative credit listings.

In 2005, Baycorp Advantage’s shareholders decided that the company separate its collections business, then, spin off as Baycorp Collection Services, which was eventually sold the following year. In November 2006, shareholders voted to adopt a new company name for Baycorp Advantage—Veda Advantage.

Official launch

Veda Advantage, as a new company, was officially launched in February 2007. In July of the same year, it became fully privatised when a consortium called VA Australia Finance Pty Limited (or VA Finance) bought all Veda Advantage shares in ASX and NZX.

Since 2007, the company took its own course to further growth and diversification as a financial business. It was involved in a number of acquisitions as part of its expansion strategy particularly in marketing. Among the business’ prized acquisitions are the marketing division of the Atlantis Group, the Australian Business Research, and the National Tenancy Database.

Comprehensive reporting

Credit reporting remained as the company’s main income source. Since 2008, Veda Advantage has been aiming to catalyse the modernisation of the current credit reporting legislations in Australia. It specifically aims for a nod to be allowed generation of comprehensive credit reports, which had been hindered by certain provisions of the Privacy Act of 1988. Clean Credit deals with the removal or correction of faulty or incorrect credit listings on behalf of its clients and shares the concern of Veda Advantage that all credit listings must be accurate and recorded correctly in order that a persons credit score is an accurate representation of their credit worthiness.

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) reviewed the privacy legislation to accommodate Veda Advantage’s recommendations for reform, especially the inclusion of account repayment history in credit reports. The Australian Retail Credit Association (ARCA) found that the company’s proposal would boost credit reporting’s predictive power to 44% from the original 10%. ARCA concluded that the boost could significantly improve the ability of the industry to predict and at the same time avoid potential credit defaults.

Furthermore, the proposed changes have been found to bolster the overall Australian economy by up to $1.7 billion. It could also help lower default and interest rates. Thus, Veda Advantage has since then played a pivotal role in transforming the Australian lending and credit markets for the better. The company is confident that it is well advanced to make sure consumers would gain from such changes.

While some credit restoration companies are quick to lay blame and target companies such as Veda Advantage for how inconsistent credit reporting can be Clean Credit feels Veda Advantage can not be held directly responsible for data that is entered by their subscribers and are actively attempting to improve the credit reporting industry in Australia and help to ensure faulty or inappropriate negative credit listings are kept to a minimum. Clean Credit is also committed to continued improvement of this process.

John Dickinson

Clean Credit – Foundation Member of the Credit Repair Institute of Australasia

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