Credit Information Bureau of India (Cibil), the only credit bureau in India, is on its way to launching a credit score for personal loans to help banks reduce their bad loans.
After launching a credit score for individuals a bank has lent to, Credit Information Bureau of India (Cibil), the only credit bureau in India, is on its way to launching a credit score for personal loans and other products to help banks reduce their bad loans. Arun Thukral, managing director of Cibil, talks to DNA. Excerpts from an interview:
Cibil has been talking about making credit report available to individuals…You know that in India, there is no unique identification number. We need a process in place to verify that the person asking for the report is indeed the person whose report it is. Due to the lack of a unique identification number, we use date of birth, mailing address, PAN number, passport number and voter’s ID for verification. We might also have to ask for documents initially and cross-check those. But that can’t be done in Cibil’s office. We need a different process centre and that should be ready in a year. By 2010, individuals will be able to access their own credit reports.
How has the situation changed given that banks are going slow on lending?Banks are still using our reports to acquire customers. These reports are also used to review the portfolios of customers they already have. That’s where the major shift is. Banks have become more selective about the customer profiles they loan money to. The account review or portfolio review tells you how your portfolio is doing. Everybody today is focussing on the regular review of the portfolio to know its health.
Have you recently started offering portfolio review? We’ve had it since last year. It became popular because of the (credit) score, which indicates the health of the record the bank is checking on. Globally too, portfolio reviews are done on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Any other international trend you see coming to India?We are thinking of launching a private score for personal loans by March. Though the generic score also includes personal loans, the new personal loan score will be more focussed. We will also look at home and vehicle loan-specific scores. The data for these already exists.
Did banks ask for a personal loan-specific score?Everything has happened as per the customers’ needs.
How will credit reports change after the implementation of the Credit Information Companies Act? The act lists the changes that have to be made. There will be a window (besides every credit entry in the report) to show what the disconnect is, if there is one. Both the credit grantor — the bank — and the credit bureau will get a 30-day window to correct that because the data is owned by the bank. Individuals can challenge the data if there is an error. But if the bank has proof, you can’t change it.
Currently, how does an individual know there’s been an error in his credit report?
Right now there is no flag if there is a dispute between the customer and the bank. If there is an error, we can arrange to send that record. We have no way of knowing that and the bank has to agree and validate the record. The record can be corrected only by the bank that has given the data and another bank cannot change it.
Will you sell data to new bureaus that come up?Why would I kill myself? That’s my USP. I would like to use the data to my advantage and come out with more products. We have a suite of products such as fraud repository, mortgage repository etc launching next fiscal.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}