The Etihad Credit Bureau is the federal credit information agency of the United Arab Emirates, established under Federal Law No. 6 of 2010 as amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2020, with operations beginning in December 2014. The bureau holds the credit data of UAE residents and produces credit reports and scores on the basis of that data. In April 2026, in collaboration with the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority and Digital Dubai, the bureau launched a service named Tenant Screening through its mobile application and the website at etihadbureau.ae. The service enables landlords to request a prospective tenant’s credit score, with the score returned only where the tenant approves the request through UAE PASS. The launch followed a preview of the service at GITEX 2025.
The Tenant Screening service is the channel referred to throughout this site when the credit component of a screen is discussed. It is not a full screen in itself — the bureau’s service returns the credit score, on consent — but it is the federal channel through which the credit component of a wider screen is now obtained.
The Etihad Credit Bureau score is a numerical summary of the credit data the bureau holds on a given person. It reflects the person’s history of credit obligations — loans, credit cards, postdated cheques, and other recorded liabilities — and the conduct of those obligations over time. The score is a single number on a defined scale. A higher number reflects a stronger credit history; a lower number reflects a weaker one.
The score is not a tenancy score in any specific sense. It is the bureau’s general credit score, applied to the tenancy context. A person with a strong credit history is, on average, more likely to meet financial obligations including rent. A person with a weaker credit history is, on average, less likely. The score is a statistical summary, not a prediction about the specific tenancy under consideration.
A landlord requests the score through the Tenant Screening service, accessed via the Etihad Credit Bureau mobile app or the bureau’s website. The tenant receives the request inside UAE PASS and approves or declines it. If approved, the bureau returns the score to the landlord. If declined, the score is not returned through this channel. The transaction is logged at both ends. The score is current as of the date of return. The system is consent-based and is not mandatory; the bureau has set no minimum score requirement for tenancy approvals.
The score tells the landlord, in compressed form, what the tenant’s record of meeting credit obligations has been. It is a summary signal, useful as one input into the tenancy decision. A high score corroborates the tenant’s stated financial standing. A low score warrants closer attention to the rest of the screen — to the cheque return history, to the employment verification, to the Ejari history. The score does not, on its own, recommend or rule out a tenant.
The score is silent on certain things that matter to a tenancy decision. It does not tell the landlord whether the tenant has, in fact, the cash flow to pay this rent at this property. It does not tell the landlord how the tenant has behaved as a tenant in prior tenancies. It does not tell the landlord whether the tenant’s circumstances have changed since the most recent data was reported. It is one signal in a screen; it is not the screen.
A tenant with a strong score and a poor cheque return history is not well-screened by the score alone. A tenant with a weaker score whose employment has been steady for years and whose prior landlords endorse them is not adequately captured by the score alone. The score lives alongside the other components, and the value of a screen lies in reading the components together.
Scores move over time as new credit conduct is reported. A score returned today reflects the data as of today; a score returned in three months may differ. Where a screen is conducted at the start of a shortlist process and the tenancy is signed weeks later, the score from the screen is not refreshed unless the landlord requests a new check. Refreshing is a fresh request and requires fresh consent.
A tenant who believes their score reflects data that is inaccurate has the right, under the bureau’s framework, to raise a dispute with the bureau directly. The dispute is between the tenant and the bureau; the screening party is not a party to it. A tenant who is in active dispute with the bureau over data underlying their score should be aware that the dispute will not affect the score returned to a landlord during the dispute window; the data correction, if upheld, is reflected in subsequent reports.
The bureau holds data on credit obligations that are reported to it. It does not hold data on obligations outside its scope: informal debts, family arrangements, undocumented credit. It does not hold data on income except as inferred from reported obligations. It does not hold data on the conduct of tenancies; rent obligations are not, as a category, reported to the bureau. The score is a credit score, not a tenancy score, even though it is now used in the tenancy context.
This is the appropriate place to be honest about the limits. The score is useful. The score is not the whole picture. A screen that relies on the score alone is an incomplete screen.
Related pages: UAE PASS consent, cheque return history, what a tenant screen includes.