CIC ISSUES NEW CREDIT REPORT PRICING SCHEME FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Credit Information Corporation (CIC), the country’s sole public credit registry and repository of credit information, issued a new pricing scheme for financial institutions using the CIC Credit Report in assessing their borrowers.
As approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) En Banc, a wholesale price of P10 per credit report inquiry may be availed through a pre-purchase of a minimum of one million reports annually, while a retail price of P15 per credit report applies for all other cases of access to the CIC database.
“The new pricing scheme is intended to provide incentives to accessing entities and drive volume consumption of the CIC basic credit reports while ensuring improved revenue flow to sustain operations and enhance service quality,” Atty. Ben Joshua A. Baltazar, CIC President and CEO, explained through the letter proposal to the SEC En Banc. The said scheme will be effective 01 August 2021 until 31 January 2022 or a period of six (6) months, which means that the introductory price of P10 per credit report inquiry fee for both the CIC’s Accessing Entities (AEs) and Special Accessing Entities (SAEs), also known as its accredited credit bureaus, remains in effect until 31 July 2021.
Basic credit reports purchased under either price will have an expiration date of eighteen (18) months from the date of purchase, as cited in CIC Letter-Circular No. 2021-06.
“As the economy tries to bounce back from the devastating effects of the pandemic, the CIC would like to offer more flexible and competitive options for our financial institutions—big or small—to review loan applications and properly manage investment risks through the CIC Credit Report which provides a comprehensive and a more balanced view of a borrower’s credit behavior,” the CIC PCEO shared, adding that the CIC database now covers 26 million unique data subjects.
Financial institutions will still have the option to access either directly through the CIC or through its SAEs namely, CIBI Information Inc., CRIF Philippines, and TransUnion Information Solutions which provide value-added services such as credit scoring and portfolio monitoring. Consumer credit scores may also be availed directly through CIBI Information Inc.’s myScore web portal.
No Hit, No Pay policy The CIC likewise encourages lenders to use the CIC data with confidence. Though it is possible that no records may be retrieved from a query, lenders shall not be charged for this result.
“The reason for a “No Hit” is either the said data subject does not have a credit exposure or credit footprint yet, hence the absence of credit data, or the financial institution that the data subject is transacting with is not yet a submitting entity in production which means that it is yet to submit actual data of their borrowers to the CIC database,” the CIC Head further relayed.
As such, a “No Hit, No Pay” policy is being adopted by the credit registry under the new payment scheme. “Under this new policy, all types of credit report inquiries will not be charged if the result is a “No Hit,” which I believe is only fair for all our accessing entities and even our SAEs,” the PCEO emphasized.
The policy will begin 01 August 2021 and will remain in effect until further notice.
“We are also considering developing a service akin to a “Certificate of No Credit Exposure” in the near future for the benefit of individuals who are new to credit including new graduates and even young professionals. It is only right that newcomers to credit should be given a boost when they are assessed for their creditworthiness when they apply for a loan or other financial services for the first time. This is in line with the CIC’s mandate of increasing access to credit especially to the underserved,” the PCEO continued. The credit registry will also issue the implementing guidelines in connection with the new pricing scheme where a prepaid system will be put in place.
“These initiatives are intended to encourage more financial institutions to realize the value of the CIC Credit Reports and harness them to navigate their lending risks in this time of the pandemic while also improving CIC’s operations and service delivery,” the PCEO ended.
As of date, the CIC has 603 submitting entities in production and 117 accessing entities consist of major universal and commercial banks, rural and thrift banks, microfinance institutions, and lending and financing companies, the list of which may be accessed via the CIC website at www.creditinfo.gov.ph.
The Credit Information Corporation (CIC), a government-owned and controlled corporation, was created by Republic Act No. 9510, otherwise known as the Credit Information System Act (CISA). The primary mandate of CIC is to establish a comprehensive and centralized credit information system for the collection and dissemination of fair and accurate information relevant to, or arising from, credit and credit-related activities of all entities participating in the ecosystem.
