This year marks ten years since Credit Benchmark was founded with a simple but powerful idea: that collaboration and data sharing could transform how the world understands credit risk.

Reflecting on the journey, co-founder Mark Faulkner recalls the early mission — to bring together the world’s largest financial institutions to create a collective, independent view of creditworthiness. It was a bold challenge in the aftermath of the financial crisis, when transparency and trust in credit data were in short supply.

The company’s breakthrough came after two years of partnership building, when the first banks began contributing their internal credit assessments. The results showed that banks often held diverse and evolving views of credit risk — and that combining these perspectives could produce a richer, more objective picture. That insight laid the foundation for what became Credit Benchmark’s consensus data model.

Today, that model has scaled to 120,000 Credit Consensus Ratings from over 40 global banks, including 17 G-SIBs, supporting better risk decisions across banking, insurance, and investment. During the pandemic, Credit Benchmark’s data even helped the Bank of England evaluate previously unrated companies through the COVID Commercial Financing Facility (CCFF) — a clear example of its practical value to the financial system.

Looking back, Faulkner says the company’s success lies not just in technology or data, but in culture:

“We’ve stayed true to our purpose — to deliver trusted, actionable credit insight. We’ll never stop striving for more data, more information, and more value for our customers.”

As Credit Benchmark enters its second decade, its mission remains unchanged: to strengthen transparency, resilience, and understanding in global credit markets through the power of consensus.