The country’s central credit registry is open to working with government agencies in implementing stimulus programs for micro-scale, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs).
Credit Information Corp. (CIC), in a statement over the weekend, said it has statistical data that can help the government in doing so.
“The CIC is willing to work with government agencies who would like to explore the possibility of using statistical data from the CIC in the implementation of various stimulus strategies being proposed for start- ups, as well as MSMEs,” CIC OIC President and CEO Aileen L. Amor-Bautista explained.
Amor-Bautista said that two of CIC’s accredited credit bureaus—CIBI Information Inc. and CRIF D&B Philippines Inc.—are offering MSME credit scoring for their clients via the CIC database. The database contains credit records of approximately 89,000 companies and sole proprietors.
The credit-scoring service is deemed timely as a recent uptick in credit report inquiries could mean that individuals are securing loans to launch their start-ups.
Amor-Bautista said that starting a small business was only expected after some employees were laid off or saw their working hours cut amid the pandemic.
“The same might even apply to mothers who need to stay home to home-school their kids,” she added.
Borrowers are relying on credit scoring to get a loan approval for their start-up business, the CIC explained.
“Many start-ups classify their initial ventures into business either under credit card applications, vehicle loans or general purpose loans,” Amor-Bautista said.
Meanwhile, the credit registry attributed the surge in credit report inquiries to its growing database as well.
CIC said that its records cover nearly 36 percent of the country’s adult population from 534 financial institutions.
Amor-Bautista said that the CIC has already 76 entities accessing the database.
“It has only been a year since we opened the registration for paid access and yet we already have major universal and commercial banks, savings and loan associations, rural banks, cooperatives, thrift banks and even government lending institutions accessing our database and actually using our credit data,” she added. -- Tyrone Jasper C. Piad
Source: BusinessMirror