The Qatar Credit Bureau was inaugurated on recently by HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani in a ceremony attended by HE the Qatar Central Bank Governor Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani. Last year, the Qatar Central Bank awarded the Dun Bradstreet company to provide an integrated solution to the bureau comprising both the individuals and the corporate sector.
Qatar Credit Bureau CEO HE Sheikh Bandar bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani said the QCB will neither interfere in the granting of credit facilities to individuals nor impose any restrictions on banks. He stated its role will be to provide credit information to the banks to assist them in making decision on how to deal with their customers.
Speaking at a press conference Sheikh Bandar said the role of the QCB will be to provide the banks, corporate and financial institutions with credit information that can assist them in the provision of credit services while reducing their credit risk. He further stated the bureau will provide information and help in improving the performance of the local credit market, stressing that the granting of a service requested by clients is subjected to the policy adopted by the banks.
The QCB does not have a supervisory role on the implementation of information it provides and its role is only to make such information available to its members in the banks and financial institutions, he said, adding that the supervisory authority for banks and financial institutions is the responsibility of the Qatar Central Bank.
HE Sheikh Bandar bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani said the QCB rendered its first service, which is a credit report. The report gave the banks access to customer data including individuals’ employment history and their credit facilities granted as well as their capability to pay back among others. The QCB CEO said the bureau will provide during the next few months credit rating, a service to gauge the credit situation of a certain client (high, medium or low risk), and in later stages it will present a service on monitoring customer accounts and control of financing portfolio of financial institutions, as well as reports on fraud cases.
He said that the QCB currently has 12 members representing the banks under the supervision of the Qatar Central Bank and finance companies in the country, pointing to the accession at a later stage of other financial institutions such as telecommunications companies and insurance companies and service companies.
Qatar Credit Bureau’s future vision implies the progressive development of the bureau to become an economic information centre, which draws upon the analytical insights of all the fundamental economic sectors so as to promote the management of the economy in the country. Source: D&B SAME and Gulf Times
