I. Introduction
The Credit Reference Center of the People's Bank of China (the Center) was born together with the construction of China's credit collection system. Since the establishment of the national centralized and unified enterprise and individual credit collection system in 2005 and after a decade of rapid development of China's information technology from 2013–2023, the basic database of financial credit information constructed and operated by the Center has become the most complete credit collection system covering the largest population and the most comprehensive collection of borrowing and lending information in the world. As of the end of September 2023, the Center's credit collection system had included information on 1.16 billion people and 127 million enterprises, basically establishing a credit file for every enterprise and individual with credit activities in the country; moreover, the objects of the credit collection business have been extended from the traditional financial industry to personal credit collection agencies, enterprise credit collection agencies and government departments, and all kinds of participants in the credit collection business have been included in the standardized management.