NCRA Adopts New Name as it Enters its Third Decade

 

In combination with celebrating its 20th anniversary of representing consumer reporting agencies providing data to the housing industry, the National Credit Reporting Association is changing its name to the National Consumer Reporting Association. This change takes effect January 1, 2013.

NCRA Executive Director Terry Clemans states, "By changing the word "credit" to "consumer", our new name more accurately reflects our members' products. A consumer report is the legal term for what our members provide, as defined in the Federal law that regulates our industry." Clemans went on to say that, regardless of the specific industry format, mortgage , tenant or background screening. NCRA members provide crucial information for housing decisions.

The majority of NCRA's original membership provides credit reports to the mortgage lending industry. Other consumer information products and services relating to or required by mortgage lenders such as flood zone determinations, IRS tax transcripts, and fraud prevention tools, have become commonplace in the NCRA member service portfolio. Many NCRA members also provide information to the multi-family housing industry; they produce credit reports, eviction records, and criminal background histories for landlords and property managers making rental decisions. Some members are heavily entrenched in full service background screening as well. The term "consumer report" as defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, is the umbrella that covers all of the members' products and services. NCRA President Daphne Large states it's an exciting time at the National Consumer Reporting Association as we celebrate our 20th year and reflect on how the industries we serve and our business have evolved during this time. Our name change reflects this evolution. We are most fortunate to have a highly tenured and experienced Board of Directors along with the outstanding leadership and representation of our Executive Director, Terry Clemans.

This is the second growth-related name change in NCRA's 20 year history. The organization was founded in 1992 as the National Association of Independent Credit Reporting Agencies (NAICRA). In response to requests by companies affiliated with one of the three national credit bureaus, NAICRA became NCRA in 1996. Removing the word "Independent" from the name, allowed membership inclusion for those affiliated companies previously prohibited from their ranks. The current name change is in response to better representation of the membership's growing business model.

NCRA's personnel, as well as physical and web addresses will all remain the same. For more information, please contact Terry Clemans at tclemans@ncrainc.org.