I reviewed over a thousand of these in 11 years. Here’s what the bank sees that you don’t.
– By Sangeeta | Export Funding Strategist
Let me start with something a little uncomfortable. Most business owners who walk into a bank for a ₹10 crore loan have never actually read their own credit report. They’ve seen the score that three-digit number and they’ve either felt confident or worried. But the score is like seeing just the cover of a book. The bank is reading every single chapter.
I was one of the people reading those chapters for 11 years. As an SME Credit Officer, my job was to look at credit reports and decide whether a business was worth the risk. And what I can tell you after reviewing more than a thousand of them is that the score is almost never what made or broke the decision. It was everything else. The details most borrowers didn’t even know were there. So let’s go through it properly. Section by section.
The 8 Sections of a Credit Report
Section 01
Personal / Business Information
Name. Address. PAN. Date of birth or incorporation. Seems simple, right? It’s not. I once held up a ₹3.5 crore application for two weeks because the business name on the credit report had one word spelled differently from the GST certificate. “Industries” vs “Industires.” A typo. Nobody had caught it for years.
Lenders use this section to verify identity before trusting anything else. If there’s even a small mismatch an old address still showing, a name variation, a PAN linked to a different entity it triggers manual checks, which means delays. And in export funding, delays cost you money.
Before any funding application just pull your own credit report. Check that your name, PAN, address, and business identity match across your GST, your bank account, and your MSME registration. All four. Exactly.
Section 02
Contact & Address History
Every address you’ve ever been associated with shows up here. Every phone number. Sometimes email IDs too. What this tells the lender: stability. Are you rooted somewhere, or have you been moving around? A manufacturer who has operated from the same factory address for eight years reads very differently from someone with five addresses in three years even if there’s a perfectly good reason for the moves.
The issue isn’t the history itself. It’s when the history looks scattered and there’s no explanation. Lenders don’t like guessing.
Section 03
Employment / Business History
For individuals, this shows employment. For business owners, it reflects how long the enterprise has been operating and its trajectory. Here’s what people miss that this section doesn’t directly affect your credit score. But it absolutely changes how a credit officer reads everything else. A 14-year-old business with one late payment gets more grace. A 2-year-old business with the same late payment gets a harder look. Context matters. Age matters too.
Section 04
Account Information: Where the Real Story Is
This is the section I’d go to first. Every credit facility you hold working capital limits, term loans, export packing credit, equipment loans, credit cards, any overdraft all of it is listed here with full details. Sanctioned amount, Current outstanding, Date opened and Current status all of it. What I was looking for was the mix. A business with only one overdraft account looks thin. A business with export packing credit, a WCDL, LC limits, and a machinery loan has clearly worked with multiple lenders, handled multiple products, and knows how credit works. That mix signals maturity. It tells me this borrower understands how to use credit not just take it.
From the other side of the desk
Also check guaranteed accounts. If you co-signed a loan for someone a family member, a business partner that loan is showing up on your report and affecting your overall credit exposure. A lot of borrowers are genuinely surprised by this.
Section 05
Payment History: The Section That Matters Most
If I had to pick one section, it’s this one. This is the record of whether you paid what you owed, when you were supposed to pay it. Every EMI. Every credit card bill. Every loan installment. Paid on time, late, or not at all, it’s all here.
The entries are called DPDs like Days Past Due. A “0” means you paid on time. A “30” means you were a month late. A “90” means you were three months late. And “written off” or “settled” means things got bad enough that the lender gave up chasing the full amount.
One stray 30-day DPD from three years ago, with a clear reason? Manageable. A pattern of 60-day delays across multiple accounts? That’s a different conversation entirely.
What most people do wrong: they wait for the banker to ask. Don’t do that. If you have any DPDs even small, old, and resolved ones have a written explanation ready before you walk in. The reason, the circumstance, what you did to fix it. Proactiveness reads as honesty. Silence reads as hiding.
Section 06
Credit Inquiries: The Footprints You Don’t See
Every time you apply for credit to any bank, any NBFC they pull your report. That pull leaves a mark called a hard inquiry. Every future lender can see it. One or two inquiries? Normal. But seven hard inquiries in six months tells a lender that you’ve been rejected elsewhere and you’re shopping desperately. That’s a flag. Even if your score is fine. Soft inquiries when you check your own report, or when a lender does a background check before you’ve formally applied don’t show up to others. Just to you.
The practical move: before approaching any bank, check your own report first. Know what’s there. Then approach lenders selectively and purposefully not everyone at once.
Section 07
Public Records: The Section Nobody Wants to See
Bankruptcies. Tax liens. Court judgments. Insolvency proceedings. If any of these exist, they live here. This section is rare most businesses never have anything here. But when something does appear, it becomes the first thing discussed in any credit review. Not the last. The first.
The honest reality is that these entries can be resolved over time. A paid tax lien is far less damaging than an unpaid one. Bankruptcies have a statutory lifespan and eventually age off the report. But resolution takes time and documentation, which is why you want to know about any of this long before you need funding not the week you’re submitting an application.
Section 08
The Credit Score: What It Is, and What It Isn’t
Finally. The number everyone asks about first. It ranges from 300 to 900. Above 750 and most lenders will talk to you. Below 650 and doors start closing or conditions start getting added. The score is a compressed summary of everything above one number that’s supposed to capture your entire financial relationship with credit. And it’s useful. But it’s also limited. Here’s what the number alone can’t capture:
| What Builds Your Score | Why It Matters | Approximate Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Payment history | Do you keep your word? | ~35% |
| Credit utilisation | Are you overextended? | ~30% |
| Length of credit history | How long have lenders trusted you? | ~15% |
| Credit mix | Do you handle different types of credit? | ~10% |
| New inquiries | Are you suddenly borrowing a lot? | ~10% |
I’ve recommended approval for businesses scoring in the 680s. I’ve flagged concerns on businesses scoring above 780. The difference was always the story behind the number not the number itself.
So What Does This Mean for You?
If you’re an export manufacturer looking for ₹5 to ₹20 crore to grow internationally, your credit report is speaking about you before you even arrive at the bank. It’s talking to the credit officer during their morning review. It’s sitting in the file when the credit committee meets. The question isn’t whether your credit report exists. It does. The question is whether it’s telling the story you want it to tell or a version of your story with missing context, old mistakes, and unexplained gaps.
Most business owners only look at this when something goes wrong. The ones who get funded, the ones who get good terms are the ones who looked long before they needed to.Want to know what your credit report is actually saying?
The Export Fundability Assessment goes through your credit profile the same way a credit officer would and tells you exactly what needs attention before you apply. Book an Assessment →