MAKATI CITY, 07 February 2023 – The Credit Information Corporation (CIC) has started conducting preliminary activities as part of the privacy impact assessment (PIA) required by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) ID integration into the Credit Information System (CIS).

The PIA is one of the onboarding requirements of the PSA for the integration, which will be performed on CIC’s data processing systems to ensure compliance with Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (DPA), and to complete the CIC’s PhilSys Integration and Implementation Plan which is the roadmap for PhilSys integration across all of CIC processes, manuals, and business operations.

The PhilSys ID Integration-PIA project of the CIC comprises six phases. The CIC has already completed the first two phases of the project covering the submission of the inception report and project plan by the highly technical consultant (HTC), conduct of data privacy awareness to key CIC employees and personnel, as well as the initial mapping of the data processing systems, programs, and services of the CIC that will require identity verification through PhilSys.

The succeeding PIA phases focus on the completion and review of other CIC processes, manuals, and business operations covering PhilSys ID integration thereto.

To ensure its prompt and full compliance with the DPA and PSA’s requirements, the CIC established a Steering Committee and Technical Working Group (TWG) for the PIA project last December 2022, and engaged the services of Dr. Rolando Lansigan, former chief of the National Privacy Commission’s Compliance and Monitoring Division,  as the HTC for the project.

“The PhilSys ID integration into the CIS is one of the key priorities of the CIC, as many of our fellow Filipinos, especially the unbanked and underserved, as well as our OFW kababayans abroad – are finding it difficult to comply with the requirement of having multiple government ID to register with financial institutions. This is a roadblock to their access to financial products and services,” the President and Chief Executive Officer (PCEO) Ben Joshua A. Baltazar said.

The PhilSys ID Integration-PIA project of the CIC commenced on 24 December 2022, and is expected to be completed by 22 June 2023.

The PhilSys ID integration plan of the CIC is in compliance with Section 7(a) of Republic Act No. 11055 or the Philippine Identification System Act, which directs all government agencies and government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) to incorporate the PhilSys Number (PSN) of covered individuals in their identification systems and databases.

The CIC also previously issued Letter Memorandum No. 2022-02 in April 2022, directing all Submitting Entities to include in their credit data submission the PhilID Card Number (PCN) of their borrowers, which is the public version of the PSN that may be used for physical and online transactions.

This press release was also featured in Journal Online, Business Information Industry Association (BIIA), and Manila Insight.