PASAY CITY, 25 October 2019 – The Credit Information Corporation (CIC) shared center stage during the press conference on the results of World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 Report which saw the Philippines move 29 notches higher than its 124th spot in 2019.
The jump moved the Philippines to 95th among the 190 economies surveyed by the World Bank for viability of business environment. The country’s ranking in the getting credit indicator was marked up by 52 notches from rank 184 to 132.
Two other metrics that pushed up the country’s ranking dealt with construction permits (up by 9 notches, from rank 94 to 85) and protecting minority investors (up by 60 notches, from rank 132 to 72).
The World Bank DB 2020 Report measures 12 business regulatory areas, 10 of which were used to estimate Ease of Doing Business (EODB) scores, namely: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. The country’s EODB score also increased from 57.68 to 62.8.
CIC President and CEO Jaime Casto Jose P. Garchitorena extended his gratitude to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), for their supportive stance on improving access to credit for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The CIC PCEO further underscored the need to focus on the importance of data sharing while implementing a fast and secure system of access to further establish a stronger credit ecosystem in the country.
“The CIC is intent on efficiently and effectively collecting and providing accurate credit data through a reliable and comprehensive centralized credit information system in order to safely and securely contribute to a truly inclusive financial ecosystem in the Philippines,” President Garchitorena added.
Currently, with nine million data subjects and 45 million contracts in its registry, the CIC’s goal is to onboard 30 million data subjects within the next two years.
The CIC currently distributes its credit reports through two of its four accredited credit bureaus—
CRIF Corporation and CIBI Inc. Its other two bureaus, Transunion Information Solutions Inc. and Compuscan, are still completing their CIC-mandated security audits and are expected to be able to begin accessing the CIC credit data within the year.
The CIC President and CEO likewise stressed that the CIC is not just about enabling loans: “We hope that as far getting credit is concerned, we do not only focus on the concept of getting credit. We should also focus on protecting Filipinos from over-indebtedness, usurious types of interest rates, and unfair debt collection practices which support the current campaigns of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the National Privacy Commission (NPC).”
Finally, he expressed the commitment of the CIC—as the country’s sole public credit registry—to help all Filipinos gain access to their own data so they can check, verify, monitor, and correct erroneous submissions on their credit report.
Also, present and acknowledged for their role in the country’s improved ranking were officials and representatives from ARTA, SEC, Land Registration Authority, Supreme Court, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Finance, Pag-IBIG, Social Security System, PhilHealth, the Local Government of Quezon City, and MERALCO, among many others.