The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will not oppose the formation of a joint venture involving six financial institutions and Experian Australia and New Zealand which will see the creation of a new credit bureau.After deliberating over the contentious proposal for almost four months, the ACCC issued a statement yesterday, saying that the proposed joint venture "would be unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any of the markets examined."The ACCC said it was satisfied that the six financial institutions were sponsoring Experian's entry in order to bring a new supplier into the credit reporting market and achieve lower prices.Experian will own 76 per cent of the new business, Experian Australia Credit Services, while ANZ, Citibank, Commonwealth Bank, GE Capital, National Australia Bank and Westpac will each own four per cent.In May, the ACCC issued a notice to interested parties, asking them to comment on the extent to which their businesses relied on the investors as sources of credit data. It also asked for their views on the current level and nature of competition in the credit reporting market. It wanted to know the extent to which the proposed joint venture would lead to "significant foreclosure" of rival credit reporting agencies' access to credit data, and their access to customers.Yesterday the ACCC said: "The principal incentive of the financial institutions, in sponsoring Experian Group's entry to the Australian market and in their provision of credit information to credit reporting agencies, is to foster competition among their suppliers rather than to replace one dominant supplier with another."It said the financial institutions' minority interests in the proposed joint venture were unlikely to result in anti-competitive discrimination against rival lenders.Experian's managing director Kim Jenkins said the joint venture would operate a fully inclusive credit bureau. "This means that every authorised credit grantor has the opportunity to contract with Experian to share and access data with the bureau," she saidJenkins said the joint venture partners had not been required to give the ACCC any specific undertakings. She said the company would start operating once it had built its business, whether the existing negative reporting rules were still operating or the new positive reporting regime was in place.As to the unusual shareholding structure of the joint venture, which had provoked some speculation, Jenkins said it was a model that had been used in other countries with success.