Our history
Our roots reach back to the inception of the Finnish credit management industry when Enento’s predecessor was founded by the largest Finnish banks, wholesalers and retail chains in 1905. More than a century later, our company has become one of the leading Nordic knowledge company powering society with intelligence.
Enento Group has been listed on Nasdaq Helsinki since 2015. In 2020, Asiakastieto Group became Enento Group.
Our name Enento comes from the Latin word Nento, which means “to entwine” which is what we do every day with the data we gather and refine. By entwining data with more or new data it becomes more powerful and even more useful for our customers.
Our growth journey in two images
We have grown both organically and via acquisitions in the Nordic countries. The timeline below shows our growth over the past years.
The below map presents when we have acquired our local companies and related brands.
Read more about our strong growth in different decades:
1900-1920
The foundation of Finland’s first credit information agency
1905
The decision was made to found a credit information agency under the name of Suomen Luotonantajayhdistys.
1906
The senate ratified the rules of the association. The central office of the association was situated in the traditional industrial town of Tampere.
1920 – 1940
Credit observation of retailers
1924
Liikemiesten Tiedonantoyhdistys undertook to arrange the credit observation of retailers of the members in the wholesalers’ association Suomen Tukkukauppiaiden Liitto.
1933
Liikemiesten Tiedonantoyhdistys changed its name to Luottotieto. Around the same time, the credit information associations began to agree on the tariffs in line.
1940 – 1960
Time after controlled economy
1940
The Second World War caused the credit information agencies difficulties in the same way as many other businesses at this time. Not so much happened in our industry during this period, between 1940 to 1960.
1960 – 1980
When people began to live on credit
1961
Luottokontrolli was founded to distribute data on hire purchase agreements and possible payment defaults of private individuals.
1972
The Government appointed a Data System Committee to handle data protection issues.
1973
In 1973, The credit information company UC in Sweden, was established.
1977
In April 1977, the first credit information report was produced in Sweden by UC.
1980
The words consumer feast and casino economy were euphemisms for the upswing of the 1980’s. As a result of the liberation of the money market private people learned to take loans and use credit cards offering long payment times.
1980 – 1990
Transparency to the credit information business
1985
By the decision of the banks behind both companies Luottokontrolli bought Maksutieto, which in few years has grown partly past Luottokontrolli in relaying payment default data.
1986
In 1986, UC created a modern techonology plattform and was able to launch the very first autoresponder service in Sweden. Customers could now get credit reports automatically over phone, with no personal assistance
1987
The Personal Data File Act brought a new kind of transparency to the credit information business.
1988
After the Act entered into force the associations and banks gave up all credit information activities concerning private individuals. This decision sealed the monopoly position of Luottokontrolli in the credit information market of private individuals. This year we also changed our company name in Finland from Luottokontrolli to Suomen Asiakastieto Oy.
1990 – 2000
Credit information society
1990
In the spring of 1990s, all key figures of credit controlling began to grow drastically, and the upswing turned into historical depression. In the early 1990s, UC launched the first cd-rom with creditinformation in Sweden. It was the first windows product in the world distributed on cd-rom.
1992
The merger agreement between the associations Luotonantajayhdistys and Luottotieto was signed and the operations were combined at the turn of 1993 to form Suomen Luottotieto-osuuskunta (SLOK).
1995
Suomen Asiakastieto Oy bought the business operations of SLOK
1996
Our subsidiaries, the business information company Proff in Sweden, Denmark and Norway were established.
2000 – 2010
Years owned by private equity investors
2002
In 2002, UC in Sweden established Ekonomipublikationer, (today Affärsfakta in Sweden AB), our telesales business partner.
2005
Asiakastieto celebrated its 100-year anniversary.
2006
Asiakastieto was transferred to the ownership of private equity investor GMT Communications Partners.
2007
Credit Data Act came into force. During its centennial journey, the credit information business in Finland has undergone several changes and has, despite a slow start, acquired a central role in today’s modern credit society.
2008
Asiakastieto was transferred to the ownership of private equity investor Investcorp.
2010 – 2020 Becoming the leading digital information service company in the Nordic region
2010
In 2010, UC launched a a new online sales plattform for consumers, www.minuc.se on the swedish market.
2011
In 2011, UC acquired www.allabolag.se in Sweden.
2013
In 2013, UC acquired Ljungqvist AB, a company focusing on property information.
2015
Asiakastieto Group Plc was listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. In 2015, UC in Sweden established UC Marknadsinformation AB focusing on information and data used in sales- and marketing processes.
2016
Acquisition of Intellia, a company offering sales and marketing services.
2017
Acquisition of Emaileri in Finland, a provider of services in digital newsletter communications and marketing automation.
2018
Since July 2018, UC in Sweden has been a part of Asiakastieto Group Plc.
2019
Acquisition of Proff in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
2020
The Nordic parent company, Asiakastieto Group Plc, with headquarter in Helsinki, changed name to Enento Group Plc. Enento Group still use the local market brands on local markets as customer brands, such as UC in Sweden, Suomen Asiakastieto Oy in Finland and Proff in Norway and Denmark.