CREDIT BUREAU ON HUNT FOR PARTNERS
Wednesday December 20, 2006
But lukewarm response to planned tie-up with phone, retail finance
companies
Chow Penn Nee
[email protected]
WHETHER you settle your phone and utilities bills on time could
determine how easily you get a bank loan in future - if the Credit
Bureau Singapore
(CBS) gets its wish.
In what could be a boon to lower-income earners, the bureau, which
counts banks and credit card companies among its members, hopes to
rope in other organisations so as to provide a fuller picture of a
person's credit-worthiness.
Today understands it is in talks with telcos, retail finance
companies and stockbrokers, to provide information on their
customers' payment histories. So banks, for instance, would be able
to check whether a potential borrower has defaulted on his phone
bill payments or interest-free instalments on retail
purchases.
"CBS is trying to get telecom data on line, as well as retail
finance companies, security houses and in the future, possibly
utilities companies," said its general manager, Mr Mark
Rowley.
Such records would come in useful when there is not much data
available for certain demographics such as low-income earners, who
would not have bank loan or credit card records.
"More data shared across industries usually leads to more credit
being granted," he added. The beneficiaries would be lower income
earners who want to borrow money, but would otherwise be rejected
as banks do not have enough information on them.
Banks may soon be able to extend personal loans to about 450,000
more Singaporeans, if a government proposal to lower the minimum
income requirement from $30,000 a year to $20,000 goes
through.
Already, GE Money requires customers earning around $1,600 a month
- who would not have credit bureau records - to furnish their
recent utilities or telco bills when applying for an ezyCash
loan.
But the three telco companies, while confirming that CBS had
approached them, did not seem eager to share information with the
bureau.
"At present, we are not considering the services as we already have
in place an effective (internally-developed) credit risk management
system,"
Mr Thomas Yip, StarHub's vice-president of Billing, Credit Control
and Risk Management, told Today.
A SingTel spokesperson likewise said the telco did not plan to join
the bureau. "We already have a well-defined credit management
process.
Customers who default on payment after repeated reminders stand the
risk of having their services terminated," she said. M1's
spokesperson said they would review the proposal before making any
decisions.
In February, Today had reported that stockbroking houses would
either join the banks' credit information system or form one on
their own. Currently, brokers are not able to tell how many credit
lines a client has with other firms, and whether he has defaulted
on his payment of share purchases.
Retail finance houses like Courts and Harvey Norman had not replied
by press time.
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