Equifax Canada Metro 2 Test Submission Handbook

1. What you will send to Equifax Canada

Two more files stay with us: the QA report (...-qa.csv, every finding of the checks) and the completed value worksheet (which field of our loan system feeds each value). Equifax Canada replies with an acknowledgement or an error report: fix what it lists, rebuild and send again until the test is accepted. Monthly live reporting starts after that.

2. Links (no sign-in needed)

Every link was checked from outside the network with no login on 1 October 2026. A .TXT or .csv link may open as text in the browser: right-click it and choose Save link as to keep the exact file.

2.1 Pages

2.2 Files

3. The steps, start to finish

1. Read Sections 4 and 5. They explain the format and the two identifiers everything else hangs on (about 15 minutes).
2. Get the onboarding details from Equifax Canada: the Program Identifier, the test window, how to send the file and how to encrypt it, any file-name rule, the line ending, and their own Canadian Metro 2 reporting guide (Section 10).
3. Settle our Identification Number with the company: our own company or branch code, 5 to 20 letters or digits, the same every month. Tell Equifax Canada what it is.
4. Map the values. Open the value worksheet and fill its last column, "Your system’s field", with the loan system’s field for each value. Section 6 explains every value.
5. Export the accounts into the CSV template: one row per account, header row unchanged (Section 7.2).
6. Enter the settings: the Program Identifier, the Identification Number, the company name, address and phone, and the reporting month (Section 7.1).
7. Build the file in the browser builder or with the command-line tool (Section 8).
8. Clear the QA findings: fix every BLOCK (no file is produced until there are none) and read every WARN.
9. Download the TXT file, the submission summary and the QA report. Fill in the five blank lines at the end of the summary.
10. Send the file and the summary the way Equifax Canada specifies. Keep a copy of both and the SHA-256 shown in the summary: it proves later exactly which file was sent.
11. Handle the reply: fix what the error report lists, rebuild, send again.

4. The file format in brief

Metro 2 is the credit-reporting format published by the Consumer Data Industry Association in its Credit Reporting Resource Guide (the CRRG). Equifax Canada uses the same layout, with Canadian meanings for some fields (Section 4.3). The format is fixed-width: every field sits at a set position and length, with no commas or separators, so one extra character shifts every field after it. That is why nobody edits the file by hand: change the inputs and rebuild.

4.1 Records and segments

Equifax Canada also has an optional P1 segment (533 characters: extra phone numbers, e-mail, driver’s licence, passport). It is not in our layout; ask Equifax Canada whether they want it.

4.2 Formatting rules

4.3 What is Canadian about it

• SIN, not SSN. Field 34 carries the Social Insurance Number. It is optional: a SIN is never a condition of credit. When reported it must be 9 digits, pass the Luhn check and not start with 0 or 8; 000000000 means none, and the date of birth then carries the match.
• Province and postal code (fields 43 and 44): two-letter province, postal code as A1A1A1 whose first letter matches the province; country code CA.
• Positions 214-230 are the Currency Type Code (left blank). Position 231 and field 2 of J1 / J2 carry the Consumer Transaction Type: a new account, or a change of name, address or SIN.
• Account status ZA (in a consumer proposal, Orderly Payment of Debts or credit-counselling plan; shown on Equifax Canada reports as R7) is Canadian. Statuses 05, 07 and 87 are still valid in Canada.
• Insolvency codes (field 38, codes A to P) cover bankruptcy, consumer proposals, Orderly Payment of Debts and credit counselling: filed, discharged or completed, dismissed, withdrawn.
• Association codes (field 37): 1 individual, 2 joint, 7 has a co-signer, 9 has a guarantor, A assumed mortgage, T terminated, W business, X deceased, Z delete. There is no authorized-user code.
• Compliance codes XA to XG, XJ and XR; there is no XH.
• Age of majority is 18 in AB, MB, ON, PE, QC and SK and 19 elsewhere; the checks flag a borrower younger than that.
• Disputes: e-OSCAR, the US dispute system, does not apply. How Equifax Canada sends disputes is an onboarding question.

5. The two identifiers

Two identifiers tell Equifax Canada whose file it is. They are easy to mix up, and they come from different places.

While either one is still a placeholder, the builder names the file ...-TEST.TXT and the checks raise two warnings. With both real values in, the file name ends in -LIVE.TXT and the warnings go away.

6. Every value you need

There are 74 values in five groups. The first three groups are entered once, in the settings; the last two are columns of the accounts CSV, one row per account. For each value the table gives where to find it (and the exact field if our loan system is Oracle OFSLL, the platform the company’s Metro 2 guide describes), how to enter it, which field and positions of the file it fills, and how it looks in the test file. In the examples a · marks a blank, so the padding shows. Yellow rows are the placeholders to replace. The same table is a spreadsheet: value-worksheet.csv, with an empty last column for our own system’s field names.

Values you never enter: the account status, payment rating, 24-month payment history, special comment, compliance code, date of first delinquency, consumer transaction type, association code, insolvency indicator, the record length and every trailer total. The builder works them out from the facts in the CSV, following the decision flows, so they stay consistent with each other.

6.1 From Equifax Canada (6)

6.2 Your company (6)

6.3 Each file (2)

6.4 Each account (CSV) (41)

6.5 Each person on the account (CSV, c1_ / c2_ / c3_) (19)

7. Where the real values go

7.1 The settings (config.json, or the boxes in the browser builder)

The file itself, as published (config.json):

{
  "period": "2026-09",
  "created": "2026-10-02",
  "equifaxProgramId": "EFXPENDING",
  "identificationNumber": "PENDINGID01",
  "reporterName": "SAMPLE LENDING CO",
  "reporterAddress": "100 EXAMPLE AVE NW EDMONTON AB T5J0N3",
  "reporterPhone": "7805550100",
  "softwareVendor": "IN-HOUSE",
  "softwareVersion": "1.0",
  "layout": ["J1", "J2", "K2", "K4", "L1"],
  "lineEnding": "LF",
  "fileName": "EFXCA-M2-{period}-{mode}.TXT"
}

7.2 The accounts (accounts CSV)

• Start from accounts-template.csv. Keep row 1, the header, exactly as it is; put one account per row from row 2.
• There are 98 columns: 41 about the account, and 19 for each of up to three people on it. c1_ is the primary borrower; c2_ and c3_ are co-borrowers, co-signers or guarantors.
• Dates are YYYY-MM-DD. Money is in dollars; cents are fine (the builder drops them). Yes / no columns take Y or N. Leave a cell blank when the column does not apply.
• Include every account to report for the month, including accounts paid off, written off or sold during it: they get a final record.
• Save as CSV (UTF-8). Accented letters are fine: the builder converts them to plain letters.
• accounts-sample.csv is the template filled with the 8 test accounts: a worked example of every column. Sections 6.4 and 6.5 explain each column; COLUMNS.md lists them in one place.

8. Build and check the file

8.1 In the browser (recommended)

1. Open https://basehub.cc/equifax-metro2/?f=OUT/build (the Outputs tab, section 8).
2. Fill the set-up boxes: reporting period, date created, Equifax Program Identifier, Identification Number, company name, address and phone, line ending.
3. Choose or drop the accounts CSV.
4. Read the verdict and the list of findings. Changing a set-up box rebuilds at once from the same CSV.
5. Download the TXT file (offered only when there is no BLOCK), the QA report and the submission summary.

8.2 From the command line

Needs Node.js and a copy of the project folder (tools/, visualizer/ and templates/), which is not public: ask the person who sent you this handbook. Then, from the project folder:

node tools/build_file.js --accounts accounts.csv --config config.json --out out

It writes four files into out/: the TXT file, -qa.csv (every finding), -manifest.json (counts, SHA-256, QA totals) and -submission.txt (the summary). The exit code says how it went:

8.3 Reading the QA result

• BLOCK: the file would be wrong or rejected (a bad date, a value that does not fit its field, totals that do not match). No file is produced until every BLOCK is fixed.
• WARN: probably fine, but a person should look (a placeholder, an unusual combination).
• Each finding names a rule, such as QAF-02PY. Search for it in the decision flows to see the rule and where it comes from.

The published test file has 0 BLOCK and 2 WARN findings, both about the placeholders:

9. The test submission summary

The builder writes a summary next to every file (...-submission.txt). It is read from the file itself, so it always matches what is sent. Below is the summary of the published test file; ours will show the real identifiers and counts. The SHA-256 is a fingerprint of the exact bytes of the file: if Equifax Canada’s copy has the same fingerprint, it arrived unchanged.

10. What to settle with Equifax Canada

10.1 Before the test

• The data furnisher agreement, and the Program Identifier for the header.
• Whether the test should use real accounts (usual) or test accounts, and how many months of files they want.
• The test window and the date to send.
• How the file is sent (usually SFTP) and how it must be encrypted (often PGP, with their public key).
• Their file-name rule, if any, and the line ending (LF or CRLF).
• The layout of their acknowledgement and error report, and who to contact about it.
• Their own Canadian Metro 2 reporting guide. It is not public; the decision flows will be checked against it.
• Whether they want the optional P1 segment.

10.2 Format and code questions

Each of these is a point marked Confirm with Equifax Canada in the decision flows, where the reasoning is set out.

• How disputes reach us, and how to correct a record between monthly files (e-OSCAR is US-only).
• How a co-signer’s or guarantor’s own J1 / J2 segment is coded (association codes 7 and 9).
• Which special comment codes they accept.
• How statuses ZA, 07 and 87 are counted in the trailer (it has no totals for them).
• Postal code spacing: A1A1A1 or A1A 1A1.
• Whether positions 214-230 (Currency Type Code) stay blank.
• Whether to keep using statuses 05, 07 and 87.
• Status and payment rating while a borrower is in bankruptcy, compared with a consumer proposal.
• How the "Subject disputes this account" note is cleared, given there is no XH code.
• Whether a new account carries Consumer Transaction Type 1 on its first report.
• Whether association code X (deceased) is still bypassed.

10.3 Company decisions (internal)

• How we report insolvencies, and the order of priority when several special comments apply.
• How long we keep reporting data (Equifax Canada drops negative information about 6 years after the first delinquency), and whether paid accounts keep being reported.
• The credit-reporting consent wording in our loan agreements.
• Compliance sign-off on the choices built into the flows: the order of the paid statuses 61-65, payment rating L before G and then Y, and ZA ahead of a write-off.

11. Handling data and credentials

• The basehub pages and files hold made-up people only. Never upload, paste or publish real customer information there. The browser builder never sends anything anywhere.
• The real accounts CSV and the real TXT file contain personal information: names, dates of birth, SINs, addresses and account details. Keep them on company systems, send them only by Equifax Canada’s secure method, and delete working copies according to the company’s retention policy.
• Report a SIN only when the consumer gave it with consent; never require one.
• Logins, passwords and encryption keys for sending the file belong in the transfer tool or a password manager. Never put them in config.json, the CSV, the summary, this handbook or an e-mail.
• Keep each month’s sent file, its submission summary and its SHA-256: together they are the record of what was reported.

Appendix A. The 8 test accounts

The test file covers the cases most likely to go wrong. Every person in it is made up.

Appendix B. Glossary

Appendix C. Sources

• CDIA, Credit Reporting Resource Guide (CRRG), 2020: the Metro 2 standard. Licensed; do not redistribute.
• Oracle, OFSLL 14.12 Metro II Data Preparation and Reporting: how an OFSLL system builds the file (the OFSLL fields in Section 6).
• Equifax Canada, Consumer Credit Report User Guide (public): the R0-R9 ratings.
• "Metro2 Format for Canadian Reporting", a public developer’s transcription of Equifax Canada’s layouts and codes: the source of the Canadian meanings, marked Confirm in the flows until Equifax Canada’s own guide is in hand.
• Equifax Canada’s own Metro 2 reporting guide: to be obtained at onboarding (Section 10.1).

Built from the project’s engine on 1 October 2026; the figures match the published test file (SHA-256 016234dfaf524301b531052ad4e21638e27f02e567a39d55dd00c9915eaaca15).