[harryh]

I'm comfortable with the idea that "if you take out a loan, but don't pay us back, we're going to tell other people that you're a bigger credit risk" is an absolute requirement to provide the service.

It's certainly a requirement if you don't want the interest rates on loans to be much higher.

[tptacek]

It wasn't always a requirement! They had other heuristics before they had credit scoring databases, like, "do your parents have an account here", and, "do you have the correct skin color and religious affiliation".