A credit history can provide information about a person that would be very usful to know if you are a loan officer at a bank. Banks are interested in protecting themselves and their investments, and this means that they would not want to lend money to just any person. They would most likely want to know whether the person is capable of repaying the loan, and whether he has been trust-worthy when it comes to paying other expenses. By checking the credit history of the applicant, the bank would know whether the person is responsible and whether he can be trusted to pay the money back.