Compare
TRI vs credit bureaus — different layers of the same decision.
Credit bureaus report on individual consumers and regulated business credit under FCRA and FCBA. The CRELYTIC Tenant Risk Index aggregates de-identified commercial-lease diligence outcomes into industry-level benchmarks. These are different data layers, different regulatory frameworks, and different tools in a CRE underwriter's stack — not substitutes.
TRI is an industry-level CRE tenant-credit benchmark that complements, rather than replaces, a bureau check. A bureau returns a company-specific credit file; TRI returns the peer distribution that file should be judged against. Use both; they answer different questions.
Side-by-side
A comparison of CRELYTIC iQ Intel TRI against the three major commercial credit bureaus most often cited in CRE underwriting memos: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Commercial.
| Attribute | CRELYTIC TRI | Commercial Credit Bureaus |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | De-identified TenantIQ research events — real CRE underwriting workflows on live prospects | Trade-payment reporting, public filings, tax liens, UCC filings, and credit inquiries from lender subscribers |
| Regulatory framework | Outside FCRA/FCBA. Commercial-entity-only scope with de-identification at capture and publish | FCRA applies to consumer reports; commercial files governed by each bureau’s terms plus sector-specific law |
| Aggregation level | Industry-quarter benchmarks (p25 / median / p75 composite scores, dimension averages, QoQ deltas) | Entity-level credit files with company-specific scores (e.g. PAYDEX, Intelliscore) |
| Refresh cadence | Quarterly publication; underlying rollup rebuilt daily | Continuous — trade-line updates arrive as lenders report; scores update on event |
| Primary use case | Peer benchmarking, sector-rotation signal, investment-committee memos, asset-management reviews | Company-specific credit decisions: extending trade credit, approving a tenant, setting deposit amount |
| What it doesn’t do | Does not return an individual company score; not a credit file; not a substitute for bureau pull | Does not expose industry distributions derived from live CRE underwriting; limited sector-rotation signal |
Why the data source matters
Bureau files are accretions of discrete reported events — a payment, a lien, an inquiry — stitched into a credit picture by each bureau's scoring model. That is enormously useful when you need an entity-level score for a specific counterparty. It is less useful as a forward-looking signal for the industry surrounding that counterparty, because the events that populate a bureau file trail the decisions that caused them.
TRI inverts the geometry. Instead of accreting trade-payment reports on named entities, it aggregates de-identified outcomes from live CRE underwriting workflows. Each research event is a CRE professional making a real decision about a real tenant — the point where a credit picture matters operationally. The resulting dataset surfaces sector-level movement earlier than the bureaus, because it captures the decision surface rather than the after-effects.
That is why the two products compose naturally. Pull the bureau file to underwrite the specific counterparty. Consult TRI to calibrate the score against the industry distribution. Read the methodology for the full pipeline, and the glossary for term-level definitions.
Frequently asked questions
Can TRI replace a credit bureau check?
No. TRI is an industry-level benchmark, not a company-level credit file. A bureau check returns a credit profile for a specific business entity under a regulated framework; TRI returns the p25/median/p75 distribution for an industry-quarter so you can contextualize whatever the bureau returned. Most subscribers run both: the bureau for the individual file, TRI for the peer benchmark.
Is TRI regulated under FCRA or FCBA?
No. TRI is derived from de-identified commercial-lease diligence outcomes, not consumer or regulated business credit. Every bucket is aggregated under min-N thresholds (N ≥ 3 reports per industry-quarter), and no individual entity is identifiable in the output. The Fair Credit Reporting Act and Fair Credit Billing Act do not apply.
How does coverage compare?
Credit bureaus maintain broad entity-level files on named businesses. TRI covers NAICS industries with sufficient captured volume — currently a small number of industries publish real benchmarks, with roughly 34 additional industries accumulating below threshold. The two products answer different questions: "what do we have on this specific entity?" vs. "where does this industry sit in aggregate?"
Why would a CRE lender use TRI alongside a bureau pull?
Bureau files score the individual tenant in isolation. TRI places that score in the context of the industry distribution for the same quarter. A tenant with a mid-tier bureau score looks very different if its industry sits at p75 of TRI composite than if it sits at p25. The combination supports better-calibrated reserves, concentration limits, and renewal decisions than either input alone.
Add TRI to your bureau workflow
Start with a seven-day trial on the current quarterly report. Drop the CSV into your underwriting model alongside the bureau pull.