In 1968, the Union Tank Car Company, a railcar leasing operation, created TransUnion as its parent holding company. For the next 30 plus years, we grew to become one of the world's leading business intelligence providers, maintaining one of the largest collections of consumer information.
In 1969, we recognized an opportunity to grow a new business using our technical expertise. We acquired the Credit Bureau of Cook County (CBCC), which manually maintained 3.6 million card files in 400 seven-drawer cabinets.
Soon after the acquisition of CBCC, we became the first company in the credit reporting industry to replace accounts receivable data with automated tape-to-disc transfer, drastically cutting the time and cost to update consumer files.
Early in our history, we recognized the enormous benefit that a national, online information system would bring to clients and responded with the first online information storage and retrieval data processing system. This system provided credit grantors across the country with one source for fast and valuable consumer credit information.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, we continued to expand our facilities and capabilities through investments in technology and strategic growth initiatives and acquisitions. In 1988, we achieved full coverage in the United States, maintaining and updating information on virtually every market-active consumer in the country.
Through the 1990s and the turn of the century, we've extended operations beyond the credit reporting industry and business-to-business offerings. Our real estate division offers lenders nationwide access to prospects, the ability to originate and close residential loans and manage the post-closing process. We also strengthened our analytics and decisioning capabilities by acquiring one of the most powerful technologies for high-volume, individual-level decisions about customer prospecting, acquisition and management.
On the consumer front, TransUnion entered the direct-to-consumer market with the acquisition of TrueCredit.com in 2002. We now help millions of consumers protect and improve their credit through easy-to-use online services at TrueCredit.com.
Today, our operations extend to 25 countries on five continents.
