Many of SCHUFA’s corporate clients are already using the new score: It currently ranks second among SCHUFA’s credit scores. As a result, it is also becoming increasingly relevant for consumers.
Wiesbaden, September 30, 2026 – In March 2026, SCHUFA unveiled its new score to the public. It is the world’s first fully transparent credit score. Consumers can easily understand how it is calculated, even without any statistical knowledge. This new transparency—combined with high predictive accuracy—is well-received by businesses: an increasing number of customers are using the new score. The number of score inquiries also speaks for itself: With currently 390,000 inquiries per week, the new score already ranks second among all SCHUFA credit scores and is thus on its way to becoming the central SCHUFA score. First place is still held by the SCHUFA Industry Score for banks, which recently recorded 400,000 requests per week.
This chart shows the weekly score inquiries from corporate customers of SCHUFA Holding AG. The six existing industry-specific scores will be discontinued as of December 31, 2028, and will then be replaced by the new SCHUFA score.
SCHUFA is thus moving closer to its goal of establishing the new score as the central credit score for businesses and consumers by the end of 2028. Currently, SCHUFA still calculates about 50 different credit scores.
SCHUFA’s Promise of Transparency: Transparency, Control, and Self-Efficacy
As more and more companies switch to the new SCHUFA Score, it is also becoming increasingly important for consumers. SCHUFA expects the new SCHUFA Score to be the primary credit score for about 80 percent of consumers by the end of 2028. Only when companies use the new score can consumers effectively influence their fully transparent credit score through their own actions. In this way, SCHUFA fulfills a key requirement of its transparency initiative.SCHUFA’s commitment to transparency consists of three steps:
- Enabling data verification: As of December 2025, the current credit information stored with SCHUFA can be viewed at any time in the SCHUFA account and can also be easily corrected there as needed. This part of the commitment has been fulfilled.
- Enabling Transparency: The new SCHUFA Score is the world’s first fully transparent credit score. Since March 17, 2026, consumers have been able to view in their accounts the data used to calculate the score, as well as the scoring criteria and their weightings. With the scoring tables, SCHUFA has fully disclosed the algorithm. This part of the promise has been fulfilled.
- Putting consumers on an equal footing with companies and banks: To achieve this, companies and consumers must see the same score. Only then can SCHUFA’s corporate client advisors engage in dialogue with consumers and discuss creditworthiness assessments. A single, centralized score is helpful for consumers’ sense of self-efficacy. This commitment to develop the new SCHUFA Score into the central credit score will be fulfilled by the end of 2028.
Making the SCHUFA Score Landscape Easier to Understand
In advance of its public launch in March 2026, SCHUFA announced that, following a transition period, the new SCHUFA Score will replace the six industry-specific scores (for banks, savings banks, cooperative banks, telecommunications, retail, and mail-order/e-commerce) by the end of 2028. Because the new score has been so well received in the market, SCHUFA has since discontinued its customer-specific score models as well. “We view our customers’ great interest in the new SCHUFA Score as a testament to its quality and expect it to account for around 80 percent of all score requests by the end of 2028,” says Dr. Felix Lowinski, Head of Corporate Clients at SCHUFA Holding AG.Further figures show that the new SCHUFA score is gaining a foothold in the market:
- Already 43 percent of companies that previously used one of the six SCHUFA industry scores are now using the new score. SCHUFA expects that, by the end of 2026, half of the companies that previously used a SCHUFA industry score will have adopted the new score.
- More than half of the customers that previously used customised scoring models have already opted for the new SCHUFA Score.
- The transition is also proceeding as planned among the top 100 customers: 19 of the top 100 customers have already opted for the new SCHUFA Score. SCHUFA’s goal is to have 25 of its top 100 customers adopt the new SCHUFA Score by the end of the year. Many of the top customers are banks, which must meet stringent regulatory requirements when making the transition and can generally do so only in consultation with banking supervisors. For these customers in particular, the transition deadline runs until the end of 2028.
- In addition, the new score has enabled SCHUFA to attract new customers that had never previously used a SCHUFA score.
Consumer interest in the new SCHUFA score is also high: Since March 17, 2026, approximately 1.6 million people have registered for a SCHUFA account or with bonify; they have been able to view their new SCHUFA score ever since.
Here are some more important questions and answers:
What role does SCHUFA play in credit decisions?
As a general rule, banks and other companies always decide—based on their internal guidelines and criteria—whether to offer a loan agreement and under what terms. Only they can explain why they made the decisions they did. For example, according to an analysis by Verivox, civil servants are more likely to obtain a loan on more favorable terms than private-sector employees. Furthermore, SCHUFA does not have any information regarding occupation, income, or employment status.Banks never determine loan terms—such as the loan amount, term, or interest rate—solely on the basis of a SCHUFA score and its risk classification.Banks and other companies often incorporate information from credit bureaus such as SCHUFA, CRIF, or Experian into their risk models. Information on which other credit bureaus SCHUFA works with can be found in the respective companies’ public disclosures.
What information does SCHUFA provide to its customers?
SCHUFA provides its corporate clients with the following services for their creditworthiness assessment risk models:
- 1. Credit Information: When a bank or other company requests a SCHUFA credit report on an individual as part of a business transaction, SCHUFA generally provides credit-related information stored about that individual. This includes, for example, information on existing loans, lease agreements, or credit cards, as well as information from public records. When a bank requests a credit report, it learns whether an individual has any other credit obligations, whether they may be experiencing financial difficulties, and whether there are perhaps even entries in public records such as the insolvency registry. Companies incorporate this information into their in-house risk models.Consumers can view their current credit data stored with SCHUFA at any time using the free SCHUFA app or the SCHUFA data copy. In addition, consumers can use both methods to see whether a company has requested credit information from SCHUFA in connection with a business transaction.
In addition, business customers can take advantage of the following services:
- 2. Credit Scores: Upon request, SCHUFA also provides its customers with a credit score for payment forecasting—but always only as a supplement to credit information. Approximately 93 percent of SCHUFA customers who receive credit information also receive scores. These scores are also incorporated into the risk models of the companies making inquiries. SCHUFA only performs a credit assessment of data (positive or negative impact on creditworthiness) in the case of credit scores.In their SCHUFA data copy, consumers can view the score values calculated over the past 12 months at the request of banks and other companies, along with the risk class, the reason for the inquiry, the recipient, and further explanations regarding the data categories used and their impact on the score. SCHUFA provides this information to consumers beyond what is currently required by law.
- Aggregated credit information: Upon request, SCHUFA provides aggregated credit information to a small number of major clients, who incorporate this information into their internal risk models. Examples of aggregated credit information include “total amount of all outstanding loans and lease agreements” or “number of outstanding loans.” No algorithm is needed—only the data and basic arithmetic—to calculate this information. Unlike with a credit score, SCHUFA does not perform a credit assessment. The companies draw their own conclusions from the aggregated credit information in their risk models—in accordance with statistical models. Consumers can view the data underlying the aggregation at any time in their SCHUFA data copy or via the SCHUFA app. In addition, consumers can see whether a company has requested credit information from SCHUFA in connection with a business transaction.
Here is more information on SCHUFA’s role in the lending process.
Will there be only one SCHUFA credit score in the future?
SCHUFA’s goal is to reduce the current number of credit scores—which stands at around 50 (including customer-specific scoring models)—to just a few. And to establish a single, centralized score that is most relevant to consumers. This role will be fulfilled by the new score, which we expect will account for a good 80 percent of all SCHUFA credit scores by the end of 2028. In addition, there will likely be opportunity scores, collection scores, B2B scores, and a mortgage score.
Is there already a new mortgage score?
Yes. This is because real estate loans are a special case in creditworthiness assessments due to their high loan amounts and long terms. Therefore, a specialized score makes sense: Similar to the new SCHUFA Score, SCHUFA has already developed a mortgage score that is also easy to understand. This score is intended to replace the old mortgage score in the future.Currently, however, only three companies are using this new mortgage score. It is generated about 300 times a week, accounting for less than 0.1 per mille of all scores.SCHUFA already transparently discloses this score to consumers in the SCHUFA data report when a company has requested it. There, consumers can see the score, the risk class, the reason for the inquiry, the recipient, and further explanations regarding the data categories used and their impact on the score.As soon as the new mortgage score becomes relevant to consumers in the real estate loan market, SCHUFA will also display this score—along with all its criteria—in the SCHUFA app and explain it to the public.
Doesn’t SCHUFA have a monopoly on credit reports, and could it dictate credit scores to the banks?
No. SCHUFA competes with other credit bureaus. If the SCHUFA solution isn’t a good fit and there’s no alternative available through SCHUFA, then the only option is to switch to another credit bureau. They, too, offer credit reports and scores and play an important role, especially in e-commerce, as the Federal Cartel Office’s 2024 sector inquiry on “Scoring in Online Shopping” revealed: “Most of these credit score calculations for online retailers were performed by Arvato/Infoscore [now Experian. Note by D. SCHUFA], and the fewest by SCHUFA,” the sector inquiry states. The study also provides a good overview of what data competitors use.
Source: schufa.de
