Credit bureau reporting built for CDFIs and mission lenders
Reporting every on-time payment to Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis is part of your mission. We turn your loan-system export into a validated, bureau-ready Metro 2 file, so your borrowers build credit and you never have to staff a data engineer to do it.
Built for
What makes reporting hard here
Reporting is the mission, but no one owns the file
Your program promises borrowers that paying on time will build their credit. Yet the actual Metro 2 furnisher pipeline tends to fall to whoever has spare time, and a fixed-width file with 426-character segments is no one's spare-time job.
One wrong DOFD can set a client back years
An incorrect Date of First Delinquency, a status code left at 93 after a borrower cured, or a stale balance can drag down the very scores you exist to raise. For a mission lender, a furnishing error is not a data bug, it is harm to the person you serve.
Grant-funded budgets cannot absorb a six-figure integration
Enterprise furnishing software and loan-servicing platforms quote setup fees that dwarf a small program's reporting line item. You need bureau-ready output for the price of a software subscription, not a capital project.
Limited engineering capacity, zero appetite for fixed-width spec
Most CDFIs run on a loan-origination system, a spreadsheet, and a part-time finance manager. Asking that team to learn the CDIA CRRG, ECOA association codes, and bureau SFTP routing is a non-starter.
Credit-builder loans have reporting quirks the generic tools miss
A credit-builder loan reports an installment account where funds are held in a locked savings account and released at payoff. The opening balance, terms, account type, and ECOA code have to be set correctly from day one, or the tradeline reads as something it is not.
Send us your loan-system export. We hand back a bureau-ready, validated first file.
Skip the months of reading the CRRG and decoding fixed-width segments. Export your active accounts from whatever system you already use, and our team produces a fully validated Metro 2 file, walks the exceptions with you, and gets it ready for delivery to all four bureaus. Your borrowers start building credit; you keep your engineering capacity for your mission.
- We accept your existing CSV or Excel export from any loan-origination or servicing system, no new integration required.
- Auto-detected field mapping with a human review, so your headers line up with the correct Metro 2 / CRRG fields the first time.
- Every record runs through our 240-plus rule validation engine before anything is generated, with credit-builder-specific checks.
- We flag and help you correct DOFD, status-code, and ECOA-code issues so you never report harm to a borrower you set out to help.
- Bureau-ready fixed-width output for Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis, delivered by automated SFTP once you are subscriber-coded.
- A repeatable monthly motion: after the first file, you upload, we validate, and the file ships on the cycle date you choose.
How your first file comes together
- 1
1. Export your active accounts
Pull a CSV or Excel report of active and recently closed loans from your loan-origination or servicing system. Include the borrower identifiers, balances, payment history, dates, and account terms you already track, no reformatting needed.
- 2
2. Map your fields to Metro 2
Upload the export and our auto-mapping suggests how each of your columns lines up with the corresponding Metro 2 / CRRG field. Our team reviews the mapping with you and saves it as a reusable template for every future cycle.
- 3
3. Validate against the CDIA CRRG
Every record passes through the 240-plus rule engine that checks Base Segment, J1/J2, and K-segment logic, including credit-builder account type, ECOA association codes, DOFD presence, and status-to-payment-history consistency.
- 4
4. Review and fix exceptions together
We hand you a plain-language exception report, not a raw error dump. We help you resolve DOFD gaps, status mismatches, and balance anomalies, prioritizing anything that could harm a borrower's file.
- 5
5. Generate the bureau-ready file
Once the file passes clean, the platform generates the fixed-width Metro 2 output with a correct header and trailer, ready to submit. You can preview it in the free in-browser file viewer before anything leaves.
- 6
6. Deliver and schedule the monthly cycle
After your subscriber codes are in place, we deliver to Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis by automated SFTP, then set your recurring reporting date so each month becomes upload, validate, ship.
Where your data lives
We do not claim a self-serve API connector to these systems. For CDFIs the honest, fastest path is the export you already run: you produce a CSV or SFTP drop, we map it once, and the monthly motion repeats. If your platform later exposes a furnishing API, we will enable it per-account.
We ingest the standard loan and payment-history export DownHome produces; no API connector, the export drives the mapping template.
We read a report-driven CSV exported from your Salesforce or nCino instance; we enable a per-account SFTP drop rather than a live API connector.
Any LOS or servicing system that can export account, balance, and payment-history columns to CSV or Excel works through the same mapping flow.
CDFI credit reporting launch checklist
The concrete steps a mission lender works through to go from zero to a clean, recurring Metro 2 file at all four bureaus. Work top to bottom; most items are one-time setup.
- Confirm your furnisher obligation and member status
- Obtain subscriber / furnisher codes from each bureau
- Pin down your reporting cycle date
- Inventory the data your loan system actually stores
- Classify your products to the correct account type
CDFI / nonprofit lender Metro 2 mapping template
Typical export headers from a community-lending loan system mapped to their Metro 2 / CRRG fields, with realistic non-PII examples. Use it as the starting point for your reusable mapping.
| Your column | Metro 2 field |
|---|---|
| borrower_first_name | First Name (Base Segment) |
| borrower_last_name | Surname (Base Segment) |
| ssn | Social Security Number |
| date_of_birth | Date of Birth |
| loan_id | Account Number |
| product_type | Account Type |
Compliance you can stand behind
FCRA furnisher accuracy and dispute duties
As a data furnisher you must report accurately, correct errors, and investigate disputes under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Validation before each file is how a small program meets that bar without a compliance department.
CDIA Credit Reporting Resource Guide (CRRG)
The Metro 2 format and its field-level rules are defined by the CDIA in the CRRG. Our 240-plus rule engine encodes those rules, including ECOA association codes and DOFD handling, so files conform to the standard the bureaus enforce.
ECOA accuracy for joint and co-signed loans
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Metro 2 ECOA codes determine how responsibility is reported for individual, joint, authorized-user, and co-signer accounts, a common case in community lending that must be coded correctly.
FCRA obsolescence and the seven-year rule
Delinquent accounts are subject to the seven-year reporting window measured from DOFD. Correct, stable DOFD values are what keep a borrower's negative history from over- or under-reporting.
Frequently asked questions
We are a small CDFI with no engineers. Can we actually do this?
Yes, that is exactly who this is built for. You export a CSV from the loan system you already use and our team produces the validated, bureau-ready file. The fixed-width Metro 2 spec, the segment logic, and the SFTP routing stay on our side.
How does a credit-builder loan get reported?
A credit-builder loan is reported as an installment tradeline. The original amount reflects the funds held and released at payoff, the account type marks it as a credit-builder installment loan, and the payment-history grid plus status reflect each on-time payment so the borrower's file shows the positive history you are creating.
What happens if our data has errors before we send it?
Every record is validated against the CRRG before anything is generated. We hand you a plain-language exception report and help you resolve DOFD gaps, status mismatches, and balance anomalies first, so you never furnish something that would harm a borrower.
Do we have to integrate our loan system with you?
No. For CDFIs the honest, fastest path is the export you already run. You drop a CSV or SFTP file, we map it once into a reusable template, and the monthly motion repeats. We do not require or claim a live API connector to your servicing platform.
Which bureaus can you deliver to?
Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis, by automated SFTP. You will need a subscriber or furnisher code from each bureau you want to report to; we can deliver to one first and expand once it is accepted.
Why does the Date of First Delinquency matter so much?
DOFD anchors the seven-year obsolescence clock and signals when a delinquency began. If it is missing, reset, or wrong, a borrower's negative history can report longer than the law allows or read inconsistently. We check DOFD on every delinquent account before generation.
Can we try it before committing real borrower data to the bureaus?
Yes. There is a sandbox and test mode, plus a free in-browser file viewer so you can preview a generated file. You can validate a sample export and inspect the output before a single record reaches a bureau.
What does the monthly process look like after the first file?
It becomes upload, validate, ship. You export your accounts on your cycle date, the saved mapping runs automatically, validation catches anything new, and the file is delivered by SFTP. Disputes and CRA response files flow back into the next cycle.
Other solutions
Get your validated first file
Send us a CSV export from your loan system and we will hand back a bureau-ready, validated Metro 2 first file, with the exceptions walked through so your borrowers start building credit the right way.