Makati City – The Credit Information Corporation (CIC) completed the first round stage of accrediting Special Accessing Entities (SAEs) by officially accepting the applications of five (5) international and one (1) local credit bureaus who expressed their intent to become the accredited CIC Credit Bureaus as part of the full implementation of Republic Act No. 9510 entitled Credit Information Systems Act.

The six who passed the document requirement stage were; Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS), Credit Information Bureau Inc. (CIBI), Compuscan, CRIF, Dun and Bradstreet South Asia Middle East, and TransUnion, all of whom submitted their documents to CIC and attended the milestone event, held this month at the CIC office in Makati City on November 16, 2015.

An SAE is defined by law as a duly accredited private corporation engaged primarily in the business of providing credit reports, ratings and other similar credit information products and services. Accreditation of credit bureaus by CIC is in accordance with the prescribed standards and rules by the government. Once accredited, these entities are granted access to CIC’s pool of consolidated basic credit data.

CIC President and CEO Jaime P. Garchitorena remarked during the opening of submissions that these SAEs would play a critical role in the improvement of public’s and MSME’s access to credit with the development of products in the form of credit scores and other value added services. Credit scores are expected to be the first products released by the SAEs and will be based on the Credit Reports accessed from the CIC as well as other data that the SAEs may gain access to from various sources.

Once CIC finalizes the accreditation of qualified credit bureaus and opens its data base for qualified inquiries sometime in 2016, MSMEs, the general public, corporations, and financial institutions can start benefiting from the credit scores and reports provided by these credit bureaus. Credit scores from bureaus and credit reports provided by CIC are expected to expedite the process of loan applications, increase the lending potential of financial institutions, potentially decrease the need for collateral, and help manage the risk of default.

CIC is expected to receive all basic credit data from banks and non-financial institutions by the end of 2016.

Source: http://www.creditinfo.gov.ph