We have American-style credit ratings in Canada generated by Equifax and TransUnion, American corporations. Maintaining these ratings produces the same behaviour modifications. One of the first things I was told when I landed in Canada in 2005 was that if I wanted to be able to buy a home, I had to get a credit card and put all my monthly transactions on it so that I build my credit score. I've been lucky to have never incurred credit card debt but I still put most of my payments through a set of credit cards. I have to specifically watch how much I put, (too much is bad, too little is bad), make sure I don't forget to pay in time and so on. I have to not switch mobile operators too often because that tanks my credit score (learned that the hard way). These days credit scores in Canada are used to screen tenants by landlords. I know a few landlords and they do rate tenant candidates by credit score. Every employer I've worked for (apart from retail) has requested and screened my credit scored before hiring me. If a Canadian has their identity stolen (like when Equifax gets hacked), their credit score is often trashed via new loans in their name, which puts them at significant risk of losing the roof over their head and curtailing their job opportunities, not to mention the direct losses as banks don't always rule in the victim's favour. Think about what the function of the credit rating in Canada is. It's clearly used for more than bank lending purposes.