In order for a small business to have a loan approved in Germany the first thing that needs to be established is the creditworthiness of the applicant. The way that this is done is now quite standardized across the commercial credit sector.
In Germany Bonität is really only another way of expressing the idea of creditworthiness. If this is found to be poor the consumer is liable to have some difficulty is getting the credit he wants. Conversely, if the lender confers a good credit rating on the applicant then the whole process can then proceed smoothly to its conclusion. In fact, there is a direct relationship between the degree of good credit rating from a third party and the willingness on the part of the lender to release funds.
According to the rules set down for small business lending in the Basel II regulations, credit worthiness is amongst the fundamental criteria for determining the granting of credit. This is the yardstick that determines the amount of Kredit the lender will put up as well as the amount of interest to be charged.
In order to establish the creditworthiness of the consumer the lender has two options. Either the Kredit provider itself will do it or the job will be passed to a third party. When the lender checks credit history in house for commercial ventures in Germany the process is known as das Kreditscoring. Since the introduction of the complex Basel II regulations increasing numbers of credit providers are using their own ratings systems that use statistical models to anticipate the probability of a Kredit default.