MAKATI CITY, 10 November 2022 – The Credit Information Corporation (CIC) has released the requirements and guidelines for the Fast Track Registration Program to become an Accessing Entity (AE) of the Corporation. This initiative was designed to further drive CIC Credit Report utilization by lenders.
“To better serve financial institutions which expressed strong interest to register as an AE but are unable to proceed due to data span limitations, we crafted the fast track guidelines to make the process faster and more seamless,” the President and Chief Executive Officer (PCEO) Ben Joshua A. Baltazar said.
AEs are entities authorized by the CIC to access borrowers’ credit reports for credit-decisioning purposes, and which are by default, able to deliver CIC Credit Reports to their borrowers through the CIC’s Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) thru AE program.
“While our long-time AE partner institutions continue to enjoy the credit risk management benefits of using the CIC Credit Reports for their credit underwriting activities, about 80 percent of the current Submitting Entities in Production (SEPs) remain in the submission or compliance stage and have not proceeded to qualify for access,” the CIC chief added.
SEPs are entities that are in the compliance stage - they regularly submit on a monthly basis the live or actual basic credit data of their borrowers to the CIC database as mandated by the Republic Act No. 9510 or Credit Information System Act (CISA).
Simplified accessing entity registration
CIC Circular No. 2022-02, series of 2022 or “Requirements and Guidelines on the Fast Track Registration as an Accessing Entity of the Credit Information Corporation,” enables qualified SEPs to proceed with the AE registration even with only at least one (1) month worth of basic credit data submission to the CIC. This is in contrast to the regular AE registration track, which requires an SEPs’ submission of six months’ worth of credit data.
“The fast track registration is in line with CIC’s thrust to prioritize the onboarding of AEs who signify strong interest in accessing CIC’s rich credit database, with the goal of contributing to improved access to credit and finance for our micro, small and medium-scale enterprises’ (MSMEs) and individual borrowers,” the PCEO Baltazar said.
He added that the CIC also urges financial institutions to offer CIC Credit Reports to their borrowers through its D2C thru AE program, to help promote and nurture the culture of responsible borrowing while providing convenience to its clients.
“In our bid to address credit information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers, the CIC is positioned towards making the CIC Credit Report the norm in the Philippine credit ecosystem, to ultimately help MSMEs and aspiring entrepreneurs expand or start their business, ” the CIC chief ended.
CIC’s AEs have utilized over 2.7 million credit reports for credit-decisioning purposes since AE registration was opened in Q4 of 2019.
Entities interested to register as AEs under the fast track registration may send an email to the CIC Access Team through email address access@creditinfo.gov.ph, furnishing a copy thereof the CIC Compliance Team (compliance.monitoring@creditinfo.gov.ph).
This press release was also featured in Journal Online, Manila Insight, and Business Information Industry Association (BIIA).