MAKATI CITY, 07 April 2020 – State-run Credit Information Corporation (CIC)—through the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—is extending the P10 introductory price per credit report inquiry for its accessing financial institutions until 31 December 2020.
The country’s central credit registry and repository of credit information requested for the extension to continue introducing the large-scale use of credit reports and promoting risk-based lending not only to major banks and credit card companies, but also to non-bank and smaller financial institutions.
The request was approved by the SEC during a Commission En Banc meeting on 26 March 2020 led by Chairman Emilio B. Aquino.
CIC President and CEO Jaime Casto Jose P. Garchitorena believes that extending the introductory price will further reinforce an already growing appreciation for the value of a shared credit database.
The number of financial institutions going beyond compliance and submission of credit data to the CIC are continuously increasing, showing greater interest in engaging with the credit registry for access.
“Large financial institutions that were previously hesitant to access CIC Credit Reports— as the newest source of basic credit data—are now actively completing their technical and legal requirements to become an accessing entity. One potential accessing entity even declared that it is budgeting to access one million CIC Credit Reports this year alone,“ Garchitorena stated.
Application as an accessing entity is open to all submitting entities in production or those financial institutions that are already submitting live or actual basic credit data of their borrowers to the CIC, with at least six months’ continuous submission reckoned from the start date of access.
New data sets, lower fees, more users
The Corporation attributes the increase in number of financial institutions applying as accessing entities to the improvement in CIC’s data collection and the recent onboarding of otherwise unavailable sources of data such as GSIS, the near onboarding of SSS data, and the growing participation of submitting microfinance institutions.
“In ordinary times, the CIC might consider charging the original approved full price of P55 per credit report inquiry due to the unique credit information that will be exclusive to lenders. We believe that our product is worth the money. But this pandemic situation is hardly ordinary times and we, at the CIC, want to do our share by keeping our prices low,” Garchitorena shared.
While access to the CIC database is not mandatory, the Corporation believes that it is a valuable tool for financial institutions especially if they expect the borrowing and lending landscape to be more challenging in the coming months of 2020.
“Cheaper access to the CIC data will serve as incentive to use more data in order to review loan applications, as well as portions of their portfolios that they want to get a broader view of. We understand from some of our users that in the coming months, the focus will be on refining their current views of their customer base to help them adjust to the impacts of COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine,” the PCEO further explained.
As of March 2020, the CIC has various accessing entities consists of rural banks, financing and lending corporations, loan associations, cooperatives, and thrift banks.
Meanwhile, the CIC database contains 11 million unique individuals and 83,000 companies/proprietors, with 73 million contract data contributed by 483 financial institutions as of end of March 2020.
“The CIC database is a new and unique government resource to assist lenders and borrowers to manage their credit risks. We encourage all our submitting financial institutions to get onboard as an accessing entity and take advantage of its benefits,” Garchitorena ended.