Creditreform is one of the most established and respected business credit agencies in Europe. Hardly any leasing or financing transaction in Germany can do without Creditreform's reliable company and payment history data — and for good reason: decades of carefully maintained data, a dense reporting network and audited processes provide a foundation unrivalled in the industry.
ConversionUp explicitly positions itself not as an alternative to Creditreform, but as its ideal complement: history meets real time. It is only the combination of both worlds of data that delivers the complete credit picture that modern risk decisions require.
What Creditreform does particularly well
- Long-standing payment history of companies and private individuals
- Core company data from the commercial register, financial statements and shareholder structure
- Negative records such as insolvencies, enforcement titles and arrest warrants
- Industry and peer comparisons drawn from decades of accumulated data
What ConversionUp adds
- Actual payment behaviour over the last 12 months — private and business accounts
- Liquidity buffer, income stability and fixed-cost ratio derived from real transactions
- Early indicators such as rising returned direct debits or failed standing orders
- Live signal for new customers and borderline cases without an extensive history
The perfect combination in practice
- Creditreform as the baseline: company and personal checks, negative records, historical risk profile.
- ConversionUp as a live complement: for borderline cases, new customers, or fine-tuning the offer, the account-based view provides an up-to-the-day picture.
Frequently asked questions
›Why do Creditreform and ConversionUp complement each other?
Creditreform provides the established view of a company's history, master data and payment experience. ConversionUp adds up-to-date account signals under PSD2 — together, they form a complete picture combining past and present.
›Does ConversionUp replace the credit bureau check?
No. ConversionUp is designed as a complement: credit bureaus such as Creditreform remain the standard for history and master data, while account analysis reveals current solvency and liquidity.
›What does a combined decision process look like?
Typically, the classic credit bureau score is obtained first. Borderline and rejected cases are then passed through the account-based second review, based on rules defined jointly with risk management.
›Which regulatory aspects need to be considered?
Relevant aspects include PSD2/ZAG for account access, GDPR for consent and purpose limitation, and MaRisk requirements on credit risk management. All processes are designed to be compliant by design.
›For which portfolios is the combination particularly worthwhile?
The combination is particularly effective for SME-heavy portfolios, in leasing, in B2B trade with payment terms, and for any provider with a noticeable number of grey-zone rejections.
›How quickly can the combination be integrated into existing processes?
Integration is achievable within a few weeks via standard interfaces. Account-based assessment is typically embedded as a second decision stage after the credit bureau enquiry.
Sources and further reading
- Creditreform — Economic and Insolvency Research — Current insolvency statistics and payment behaviour of German companies
- BaFin — Payment Services Supervision (PSD2) — Regulatory framework for account information services in Germany
- BaFin — MaRisk (Minimum Requirements for Risk Management) — Supervisory requirements for credit risk management
- EU Directive 2015/2366 (PSD2) — Legal basis for regulated account access in Europe
- Deutsche Bundesbank — Financial Stability Review — Macroeconomic conditions affecting credit risk and corporate financing
Want to win customers despite a weak classic credit score?
ConversionUp analyses current business account data and gives borderline cases a well-founded second look.
