MAKATI CITY, 27 August 2020 – Recognizing the value of a central credit registry in easing access to credit and reducing overall credit risks amid the pandemic, cooperatives and lending and financing companies showed a marked improvement in compliance with Republic Act No. 9510 or the Credit Information System Act (CISA).
In its Letter-Circular No. 2020-05 dated 19 August 2020, Credit Information Corporation (CIC)—the state-run repository of credit information—published the list of 15 additional financial institutions that are now officially submitting live or actual basic credit data of their borrowers to the CIC database, bringing the total of its submitting entities to 519.
Cooperatives topped the list with the addition of Agusan Del Sur Capitol Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ADSCEMCO)Advantage Lending Corp; Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center Employee's Multi-purpose Cooperative Camfin Lending Inc.; Bukluran Multipurpose Cooperative; CENECO Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative; Greater Midsayap Area Multipurpose Cooperative (GMAMPC); Palompon Community Multipurpose Cooperative; and Bukidnon Government Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BUGEMCO).
“Cooperatives are key players in the country’s financial ecosystem especially during this pandemic where cooperatives are active front liners in terms of getting credit in areas outside the reach of traditional lending. The onboarding of credit data from cooperatives is crucial in achieving the goal of inclusivity of the credit registry—by having credit reports available to even the smallest and most distant borrowers—as envisioned by the law,” CIC President and CEO Jaime Casto Jose Garchitorena shared.
Supporting co-ops with technical difficulties
Just recently, the CIC engaged with the Northeast Luzon Credit Cooperative League – Philippine Federation of Credit Cooperatives (NELCCO-PFCCO) to deliver performance updates on the cooperative’s data submissions to the Credit Information System (CIS).
The CIC also shared its recent implementation of the Primary ID (PID) Number Tagging System that resolved the long-standing requests of cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to assist borrowers with no access to TIN, SSS, and GSIS numbers. The same system updates also allowed the use of UMID and driver’s license, boosting compliance for lenders focused on vehicle lending.
“We are here not to pressure you to submit data, but to ask how we can help,” the CIC PCEO told the 80 member-cooperatives who attended the webinar on 20 August. “We can provide you with training and assistance in the technical requirements for submission and compliance and we will be with you every step of the way.”
Constant expansion of data set
Also dominating the new set of data contributors are lending and financing companies including CashXpress South East Asia Lending, Inc.; Easycash Lending Company, Incorporated; and Esquire Financing, Inc.
Rural banks are also consistent in submission and the list now includes Dungganon Bank (A Microfinance Rural Bank), Inc.; Gateway Rural Bank, Inc.; Rural Bank of Apalit, Inc.; and St. Michael Rural Bank of Tarlac (Tarlac), Inc.
Philtimes Credit Corporation and Community Economic Ventures, (A Microfinance NGO) Inc. also made it to the list.
The addition of the said financial institutions is seen to further broaden the coverage of the already expansive CIC database with 18.2 million Filipinos and 80.4 million contracts as of August 2020.
“This means that the CIC covers the average Filipino when it comes to credit reports—not just those who have credit cards or have loans with commercial banks, but even cooperative members and those who turn to lending and financing companies, especially during these uncertain times,” Garchitorena added.
Warnings against malicious, fraudulent use of the CIC name
The CIC, however, cautioned the public against the malicious use of CIC’s name by lenders.
“Since the implementation of the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) in June, we have been receiving complaints from borrowers allegedly harassed by lenders and debt collectors. They threaten the borrowers that their defaults will be submitted to the CIC and that they will be included in some sort of a negative list and be blacklisted in other financial entities,” Garchitorena explained.
He assured the public that the CIC does not tolerate harassment nor encourage any financial institution to use the name of the credit registry for matters involving their business.
“First, the CIC does not have any access to or keep any negative or blacklist of delinquent clients, nor investigate the status of the borrowers. Also, the CIC will never be part of any direct collection activities,” the PCEO emphasized.
In closing, he advised the public to check whether the financial institution threatening to submit their data to CIC is actually a submitting entity.
“Some of these institutions have not even begun submission to our database. You may check if they are part of CIC’s submitting entities in production by referring to the list on our website,” Garchitorena ended.