The joint initiative will enable banks to make more accurate credit decisions, thanks to increased data quality.
Experien and Kredi Kayit Burosu (KKB), the first and only credit bureau in Turkey, have signed an agreement for a project that will ensure more accurate credit decisions are being made, thanks to the most comprehensive data quality project that has been carried out to date in Turkey.
Working with Experian, KKB will be able to automatically check the accuracy and integrity of the incoming data from banks and work with them to correct data where necessary. As all the products produced by KKB are based on the data that is received, thanks to Experian’s experience in data governance, this consultancy project will also be beneficial for the accuracy, consistency and credibility of current and future products.
Koray Kaya, Strategic Planning and Corporate Relations Executive Vice President at KKB, said: “The quality of all KKB products and services depend on the accuracy and consistency of the data they contain. We do not look at this just as ‘data quality’, but as a broader term ‘data governance’.”
“The data KKB uses comes from banks and financial institutions. As the data sources are many and external to KKB, communicating the detected quality issues with our members has also become an important part of the process. Under the data governance project we conduct together with Experian, we aim to automate the data quality checks and form a platform which will systematically communicate with the members and ensure that data quality issues are addressed.”
Cenker Özhelvacı, Market President and General Manager at Experian Turkey, Balkans and Middle East, said that the banks should ensure the quality of the data they provide to KKB and added: “Data that is wrong, partial or old, affects the performance of any predictive models developed using this data. These circumstances are affecting the economy, banks and ultimately the customers of the banks, especially all those who use credit, so KKB decided to take action. We will support them with Experian’s data governance and data quality expertise which we gained in countries like the UK and USA where the credit services are more advanced. The work we are doing with KKB will ensure that a system is established where data issues are detected quickly and highlighted to KKB members, who will then be able to address them.”
Ozhelvaci highlighted that the data quality issue is not only on KKB’s agenda, but also that of all financial institutions, as a result of the Best Practice Guidelines and Draft Application Guideline of Advanced Internal Ratings Based Approach (AIRB) framework. He believes that in the near future data quality and governance will be extremely important for Basel compliance. Ozhelvaci warns that banks that ignore data quality issues during Basel processes[1] will face reputational risks, higher capital needs and a decrease in the value of stock shares. This means that banks could risk not achieving a passing grade from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA).
[1] International banking regulations that set out the minimum capital requirements of financial institutions with the goal of minimising credit risk. Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/basel_i.asp#ixzz3XNeBuJp3
About Kredi Kayıt Burosu (KKB):
“The first and only credit bureau of Turkey, KKB was established on 11 April 1995 with partnership of the leading 9 banks of the sector. As of the end of 2014, it has 154 members consisting of 42 banks, 76 factoring, 20 leasing, 12 consumer finance, 3 insurance companies and Istanbul Stock Exchange.”
Source: Experian Press Release
