To further strengthen credit reporting in the country, the Credit Information Corp. (CIC) is eyeing to onboard more submitting and accessing entities in its database this year.
Aileen L. Amor-Bautista, CIC’s Senior Vice President for Business Development and Communications, told the BusinessMirror in a recent interview that the central credit registry was targeting to have a hundred more submitting entities (SEs) and a hundred accessing entities this year (AEs).
“While submission is mandatory, the CIC recognizes the impact of the pandemic on the regular operations of its submitting financial institutions,” Amor-Bautista said, explaining that the CIC last year extended the deadline for submission of credit data. Still, Amor-Bautista said that the number of SEs increased, reaching 557 as of latest data.
The credit agency is also opening schedules for training of SEs this year soon to provide them knowledge on their roles in the credit information ecosystem and introduce them to the creation of submission files. The CIC official announced last year that the training slots were fully booked.
While accessing the credit registry is voluntary, Amor-Bautista said that CIC has been campaigning on onboarding more financial institutions amid the pandemic.
As of December, the CIC has 86 AEs paying and investing to access credit reports as basis for their credit decision, she added.
These AEs include banks such as BDO Unibank Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands, Union Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Savings Bank, Equicom Savings Bank, ING Bank N.V. Philippines, Sterling Bank of Asia Inc. and Metrobank Card. Non-bank AEs include the HC Consumer Finance Philippines. Inc., Toyota Financial Services Philippines Corp. and the Small Business Corp.
“This is such a huge milestone for the agency, since the CIC opened the registration for paid access to the database only in July [2019],” Amor-Bautista said adding that from zero to 24 accessing entities by end of 2019, the number more than tripled as of December 2020.
She added that the CIC launched an online Covered Entity Portal to hasten the process of becoming an AE. This platform allows applicants to register, update and submit documents online.
“The CIC Credit Report is an important tool for financial institutions in the conduct of their broad portfolio review across all risk segments,” Amor-Bautista explained. She noted that the CIC’s purpose is “to make credit more cost-effective and promote financial inclusion.”
“The CIC Credit Report may help individuals and even MSMEs who were affected by the pandemic to gain access to their much-needed loans and other financial services as it will serve as proof of their creditworthiness and trustworthiness as borrowers,” Amor-Bautista explained.
The country’s central credit registry currently has 80 million contract data as of December 2020. - Tyrone Jasper C. Piad
Source: BusinessMirror