The country’s central credit registry is seeking a P90-million government subsidy for the next year as it gears toward improving its database management further.
The Credit Information Corp. (CIC) said that bulk or around P35 million of this requested financing will be earmarked to better the security and maintenance of its growing credit database.
“As our database expands, however, the need to tighten the security of our system becomes all the more imperative, especially these days when potential cyber-attacks threaten businesses and organizations with the implementation of remote work amid the pandemic,” CIC OIC President and Chief Executive Officer Aileen L. Amor-Bautista said during a virtual hearing last week.
The credit registry shared that the database currently has financial credit data of more than 18.9 million Filipino borrowers, translating to 30 percent of the country’s adult population. This, in addition to 80 million contracts coming from over 500 financial institutions.
It added that security is the highest expense being incurred by the firm aside from employee salaries.
System improvements will be continuously be in place as the credit registry onboard more submitting entities, load additional credit data and further broaden financial inclusivity, the CIC said.
With this, the firm said it is investing in third-party solutions provider to ensure cybersecurity all the time. The CIC added it is earmarking funding for regular annual penetration testing of the Credit Information System (CIS) to discover potential gaps in security.
“Other security solutions that will protect the CIS are also in place and would therefore need budget for the annual subscriptions,” Amor-Bautista explained.
The CIC chief said it will be operating on a “fairly tight budget” next year in support of government initiatives for efficiency.
“We’re spending under five pesos per data subject at the current rate of subsidy which we feel is very efficient,” Amor-Bautista said. “We’re also hoping to improve our revenues over the years to slowly minimize our dependence on government subsidies.” -- Tyrone Jasper C. Piad
Source: BusinessMirror