What PBSA accreditation actually is
The Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 2003 — originally as the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) — to establish and promote high ethical and performance standards for the background screening industry. It represents over 600 member companies globally, ranging from small regional firms to Fortune 100 screening providers.
PBSA accreditation is the association's independent audit program for Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) — the third-party companies that conduct background checks on behalf of employers. To earn it, a screening company must pass a rigorous onsite audit conducted by an independent auditing firm, covering six critical areas:
- How the company handles applicant rights, dispute resolution, and privacy.
- Adherence to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and applicable state and local laws.
- How the company informs employers of their legal obligations.
- The quality, accuracy, and sourcing of the data returned in reports.
- Internal processes, staffing, and quality controls.
- Data protection, system security, and handling of personally identifiable information.
Accreditation is not a one-time achievement. Companies must re-complete the full audit process every five years to maintain their status, with surveillance checks in between. Membership in the PBSA is optional — and accreditation is an additional, voluntary commitment on top of that.
Why PBSA accreditation matters for employers
The background screening industry is largely unregulated at the licensing level. According to the PBSA, there is no federal licensing requirement to become a background screening company. As one industry resource notes, a local nail salon likely faces more licensing requirements than an employment screening firm. The result: the market contains hundreds of providers with wildly varying levels of data quality, compliance knowledge, and operational standards — and no easy way for an employer to tell them apart from the outside.
PBSA accreditation changes that. It is the industry's only independent audit that requires a company to demonstrate — in writing and in real time — that its processes meet a defined standard across compliance, accuracy, security, and consumer protection. Accredited firms have agreed to abide by industry-established practices and have demonstrated adherence through both desk and onsite audits by an independent auditor.
For employers, this matters in three specific ways.
The FCRA places significant obligations on employers who use background checks — written consent, compliant adverse action processes, dispute rights, and proper disclosure. An accredited provider is required to educate clients on these obligations and build compliant workflows into their platform. A non-accredited provider may simply not know what you're legally required to do — leaving your organization exposed to class action litigation that has cost employers tens of millions of dollars in settlements.
The accreditation standard requires that screening companies follow "reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy" — the same standard mandated by the FCRA. It covers how records are sourced, matched to individuals, and how out-of-date or expunged records are handled. A cheap database pull from a non-accredited provider can return records that belong to a different person, miss a recent conviction entirely, or include information that is legally off-limits.
Background checks involve some of the most sensitive personal information an employer collects: Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, criminal records, financial history. The accreditation audit includes a detailed review of data security practices — system configuration, encryption, access controls, and data retention and disposal procedures.
How rare is PBSA accreditation?
Very. Of the approximately 1,000 background screening companies operating in the United States, only around 125 — roughly 13% — hold PBSA accreditation. Some sources put that figure lower. The reason so few earn it comes down to what the audit actually requires: a difficult, resource-intensive process that demands documented policies, operational evidence, and a willingness to be evaluated by an independent third party. Companies that cut corners on data sourcing, compliance infrastructure, or security practices cannot pass it.
For employers making hiring decisions that carry legal and safety consequences, that distinction matters.
What the PBSA accreditation audit actually covers
The audit evaluates a screening company's compliance with the FCRA's full workflow requirements. The five-step FCRA process that every accredited provider must support is:
- The employer must disclose that a background check will be obtained and get written authorization from the applicant before any screening begins.
- The screening company must use reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy and follow FCRA and state law reporting limitations.
- If the employer considers adverse action based on the report, they must send a notice with a copy of the report and a summary of the applicant's rights before taking any action.
- The applicant may dispute incomplete or inaccurate information; the screening company must reinvestigate.
- The employer makes the hiring decision and certifies compliance with FCRA requirements.
An accredited provider is audited on its ability to support every step of this process — not just the data retrieval component. Providers that deliver reports without supporting the compliance workflow around them are leaving their employer-clients to manage that exposure alone. For a full walkthrough of the FCRA compliance process, see our FCRA compliance guide.
The Honest Background Screening Comparison Report
Ten industry categories. 23 vendors evaluated under the same rubric — accredited and non-accredited — including the one category where Bchex is Not Rated, and who's built for that buyer instead.
- ✓Which vendors hold PBSA accreditation — and which don't
- ✓The 5 pressure-test questions, with example answers and dodges
- ✓The red-flags checklist for spotting a vendor that's drifting
- ✓Industry-fit grid: 10 categories × 23 vendors
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PBSA accreditation vs. FBI fingerprint checks
A common misconception among employers — particularly in education, healthcare, and childcare — is that FBI fingerprint checks are more thorough or reliable than professional background screening. The PBSA addresses this directly. Professional screening has significant advantages over fingerprint-only checks:
- Multiple identifiers. Identity matching uses name, date of birth, SSN, aliases, and past addresses — rather than relying solely on the existence of a fingerprint.
- Source-verified records. Professional screeners supplement database records with complete record and disposition information obtained directly from the source.
- Dispute rights. Inaccurate or incomplete records are easily disputed through the FCRA's dispute resolution process.
- Tailored scope. Screening can include education and employment verifications, driving records, and sex offender registry checks based on the role.
- No statutory access requirement. Fingerprint-based checks can only be performed when granted access by state or federal statute; professional screening has no such limitation for most employment contexts.
FBI databases — including the Interstate Identification Index (III) System — are not a complete national database of all criminal history records. Many state records are not included or have not been updated. There is currently no single government database containing complete and up-to-date records regarding a person's criminal history. For most employment purposes, professional screening conducted by a PBSA-accredited provider returns more complete and more current information than fingerprint-only checks.
Where Bchex stands on PBSA accreditation
Accreditation is the foundation for every guarantee Bchex extends — not a badge bolted on after the fact.
Bchex is PBSA-accredited, placing it in the roughly 13% of U.S. screening companies that have passed the independent audit. That accreditation is the foundation for all three client guarantees: the Satisfaction Guarantee, the One Business Day Delivery Guarantee, and the Price Guarantee against any other PBSA-accredited competitor.
The price match is deliberately restricted to accredited providers — because comparing prices with non-accredited companies isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. The operational and compliance infrastructure required to earn accreditation is built into what you're paying for.
For employers evaluating screening vendors, PBSA accreditation should be the first filter — not the last. It doesn't tell you everything about a provider, but its absence tells you something important.
For a full comparison of how Bchex stacks up against other accredited and non-accredited providers by industry, see The Honest Background Screening Comparison by Industry (2026).
FAQs about PBSA accreditation
What does PBSA stand for?+
How do I know if a background check company is PBSA-accredited?+
Is PBSA accreditation required by law?+
What are the six areas covered in the PBSA accreditation audit?+
How long does PBSA accreditation last?+
Does PBSA accreditation mean a company is FCRA compliant?+
Why don't more background check companies pursue PBSA accreditation?+
Is Bchex PBSA-accredited?+
The bottom line on PBSA accreditation
PBSA accreditation is not a marketing badge — it's the only independent audit in the background screening industry that verifies a company's compliance infrastructure, data accuracy standards, and security practices against a defined, third-party standard. Fewer than 13% of U.S. screening companies hold it. For employers whose hiring decisions carry legal and safety consequences, that number is the most important context in any vendor evaluation.
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