CreditorWatch has announced it has become Australia’s first credit reporting agency to be granted certification under the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO’s) Digital Service Provider (DSP) framework.

The ATO’s Operational Security Framework sets out strict data security and systems integrity requirements for certified organisations to access to a range of digital wholesale services at the tax office.

Digital wholesale services include a range of data-rich offerings, including tax and business accounting, payroll, super, business registration and other reporting services, accessible via the ATO’s application programming interfaces (APIs).

Certification within the framework, CreditorWatch noted, ultimately protects the confidentiality and integrity of its client’s data, reducing the risk of identity theft, tax refund fraud and system hacks, and providing controls to protect the confidentiality and integrity of providers’ client data.

CreditorWatch chief executive Patrick Coghlan said ATO certification provides for its customers “recognition of CreditorWatch’s high standards of data security, which is also illustrated by our ISO 27001 (information security management) and 27017 (cloud security controls) designations”.

“Our customers can be certain that we adhere to the highest possible standards when it comes to the protection of their data. Our high standards also apply to the efficiency of our platform – we have market-leading uptime of 99.95 per cent over the past three years.

“This is crucial to our customers for business continuity.”

He added that the organisation was “proud to be the first credit reporting bureau in Australia to achieve” this certification.

“The market is acutely aware of the importance of security and privacy, and the protection of financial and personal data, given recent events that have impacted both Australian businesses and consumers alike.”

CreditorWatch, which services 50,000 clients locally, is an Australian-owned credit reporting bureau providing credit and financial risk information, digitised financials, credit scoring and modelling and API-driven data delivery.

Among their service highlights include their ‘Risk Score’, touted by CreditorWatch as “the most predictive credit algorithm in the Australian market”, unique SME payment and default data, and ATO tax debt default data.