Sales of the SCHUFA Group increase by 4.2% year-on-year to EUR 283.8 million in 2023 // Sales in the Compliance business area doubled // EBIT of SCHUFA Holding AG increases by 5.3% to EUR 78.1 million // Group EBIT decreases by 8.7% to EUR 63.4 million due to investments in the transparency offensive and further development of SCHUFA
SCHUFA was able to increase its sales even in the recession year of 2023, despite declining consumer spending among Germans. SCHUFA Holding AG’s sales rose from EUR 267.3 million in the previous year to EUR 276.1 million (+ 3.3%). Earnings before taxes and financial result (EBIT) rose by 5.3% year-on-year to EUR 78.1 million. The SCHUFA Group, including its subsidiaries Forteil GmbH (bonify), ClariLab GmbH and finAPI GmbH, also increased its sales by 4.2% to EUR 283.8 million.
Increase revenue through creditworthiness, identification, fraud prevention and compliance
The SCHUFA Group’s increase in sales extends across all four business areas – creditworthiness, identification, fraud prevention and compliance – but is of varying degrees. Sales in the creditworthiness area rose by 3.4% to EUR 240.1 million in 2023 compared to 2022. The identification (+ 4.3%) and fraud prevention (+ 0.6%) business areas also increased compared to the previous year (EUR 21.9 million to EUR 22.8 million and EUR 11.7 million to EUR 11.8 million respectively). The compliance business area saw the strongest percentage increase, almost doubling its sales compared to the previous year (EUR 2.2 million to EUR 4.2 million, + 87.1%). This is largely due to the success of the KYC solutions with ClariLab.
Business with corporate customers grew more strongly in 2023 than that with private customers. SCHUFA generated sales of EUR 197.2 million with corporate customers (+ 4.4% compared to 2022). The main driver was a stable growth rate of SCHUFA credit products. But increasing digitization and regulatory challenges in the economy also led to significantly stronger growth rates in the areas of identification, compliance and fraud prevention. In the private customer area, which includes SCHUFA’s subscription products as well as tenant information, group sales rose from EUR 82.2 million to EUR 85.3 million (+ 3.7%). This can be attributed to the growth in the rental market, which was still recorded in 2023, as well as increased interest in proving one’s own creditworthiness and protecting consumers against identity theft.
SCHUFA is active throughout the entire risk management value chain
“The year 2023 shows that SCHUFA is more than just creditworthiness,” says Tanja Birkholz, CEO of SCHUFA. “We were able to significantly increase our sales in 2023, especially in the area of compliance – the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing is a strategic focus of the group. SCHUFA will expand its offering in order to transform itself from a credit agency into a technology provider in the area of regulation for its customers. We are already active not only in the area of credit information, but in the entire risk management value chain.”
The Group’s EBIT fell by 8.7% year-on-year to EUR 63.4 million. The reason for this is the Group’s investments as part of the transformation of SCHUFA. This includes in particular the purchase of the FinTech Forteil GmbH with its app bonify. To implement its strategy for more explainability, transparency and a stronger focus on consumers, SCHUFA bought the Fintech at the end of 2022 and thus enabled private individuals for the first time to view their individual SCHUFA basic score digitally and free of charge via bonify at any time. Since this year, private individuals can also view negative SCHUFA entries in the bonify app and be notified of initial negative entries.
The annual profit of SCHUFA Holding AG was impacted by a one-off special effect of EUR 12 million in the financial result. The reason was an adjustment of the investment book value of 
finAPI GmbH.
Source: SCHUFA Press Release
