P2P Platforms carrying out credit checks on investors...

I was slightly surprised to have some alerts from Equifax about my credit record recently... One triggered by AC when I opened a new account, and another by ABL when I carried out my first withdrawal from them.

In neither case was I warned that the credit check would occur. This is slightly odd: after all, if you apply for (say) a loan or credit card - when the credit check makes perfect sense - in my experience the provider will go to great lengths to be explicit about when the credit check will occur, as having an excessive number of checks is in itself a problem.

I'm guessing that they felt it was necessary as part of their identity checking obligations, but aren't there better ways of doing this? And shouldn't I have been warned?