TRW Completes Mammoth Overhaul of Credit Database

TRW Information Systems & Services in Orange, the consumer and business credit reporting organization that is about to shed its links with its parent conglomerate and become a separate, privately owned company, made corporate history earlier this month.

In what it says is the most ambitious conversion of a commercial database, TRW Information Systems transferred credit information on more than 190 million people into a powerful new computer and data system. The company, which came under fire in the early 1990s for inaccuracies in its credit reports, spent four years and “tens of millions of dollars” developing the new database, said D. Van Skilling, vice president and general manager of the unit.

The new system logs information on consumers into data tables that are linked by the consumer’s file number and assigns a single, unique number to each consumer. Skilling said the system will eliminate problems like a bounced check from “Jon Public” showing up in “John Public’s” file.

The database also will enable TRW to prepare and market all kinds of direct marketing data because it will make it easy for analysts to sort people by categories such as credit status, income, age, area of residence and real estate holdings.

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations, manufacturing and economic issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com