Understanding CRB (credit reference bureau) checks
A CRB (credit reference bureau) check pulls a borrower's external credit history so an underwriting decision reflects debts and defaults that may not be visible inside your own book. In Ustawi the check is recorded against the very application it informed, so the evidence sits with the loan rather than in a separate log.
When a CRB check is required
Whether a CRB pull is mandatory is configured per loan product. Lower-value products may not require it, while larger exposures commonly do — this mirrors the way the approval ladder escalates by amount. Where a product requires the check, the result becomes one of the items the approval ladder looks for before a loan can advance.
How the result feeds the decision
- The pull is recorded against the application, so an approver sees it in context with affordability and documents.
- An incomplete or not-yet-returned CRB check is a standard hold — a loan can sit at committee purely because the pull has not come back.
- Because the result is attached to the case, the decision history shows that external credit data was considered before approval, not after.
Clearing a CRB-related hold
If a loan is stuck waiting on CRB, complete or re-run the pull for the products that require it. Once the result is attached, the case becomes actionable for the approver again. As with affordability, the check is part of the underwriting workflow rather than a box ticked afterwards.
A CRB result is sensitive borrower data. It is stored against the application under the platform's access controls and audit logging, so who ran the check and when is reconstructable.