Kurt Meyer was a co-founder and the first managing director of SCHUFA. A doctor of law who initially worked for companies and associations after World War I and was admitted to the bar in Berlin in 1925, he founded SCHUFA in 1927 together with his brother Gerhard Meyer and Bewag board member Robert Kauffmann. By the time he took over as managing director, he was already regarded as a lawyer with an excellent network and business acumen.

Meyer was convinced that trust in the lending business had to be based on reliable information. That is why, from the very beginning, he established SCHUFA’s principle of reciprocity: Companies reported their information on loan and installment payments and, in return, received information about potential customers. Under his leadership, the Berlin-based SCHUFA flourished: The card index grew from 1.5 million records in 1929 to approximately 2.6 million entries by 1935.

Contemporaries later referred to Meyer as the “leading figure of the entire Schufa movement”—a reference to his formative influence on the credit bureau’s early development.

Kurt Meyer came from a Jewish family and, in addition to his work for SCHUFA, practiced as a lawyer and notary in Berlin. When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, his professional situation deteriorated steadily. He lost his license to practice as a notary, and the boycott measures against Jewish businesses brought his law practice to a halt.

As a veteran of World War I, Meyer was initially able to remain managing director of SCHUFA. However, with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, this special status was revoked. His salary was cut, and his future at the company became increasingly uncertain. On March 31, 1937, Meyer was finally forced to resign from his position as managing director of SCHUFA and, shortly thereafter, became the target of anti-Semitic smear campaigns in the Nazi newspaper *Der Stürmer*.

In June 1937, Meyer fled to London. Before his escape, Meyer was required to pay the so-called Reich Emigration Tax. In Great Britain, he initially worked for a company in the film industry, but lost his job at the start of World War II when German patents were declared invalid. At the same time, as a German citizen, he faced the threat of internment as an enemy alien.

In 1940, Meyer emigrated to Argentina with his wife. There, he initially worked for an agricultural cooperative and later as an independent businessman in Buenos Aires. Despite living in exile, his ties to Germany were never completely severed. In 1952, he applied for readmission to the bar in Berlin, which was granted a year later. In the mid-1950s, Meyer returned to Germany and resumed his work at SCHUFA. From Cologne, he supported the rebuilding of SCHUFA throughout Germany. He remained particularly committed to the idea that SCHUFA should not only serve the interests of the lending industry but also protect borrowers. Kurt Meyer died in 1980 in Ascona, Switzerland.