Facilitating access to finance

Charumini de Silva

The Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka (CRIB) plans to expand the credit market in the country through facilitating access to finance. Under this method the lending institutions and the banks will grant loans for the community by considering the pattern of people’s utility bill payments.

“When people have a pattern of paying their utility bills on a regular basis the lending institutions will have the assurance that the customer is capable of repaying the debts or loans,” Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka General Manager, Gamini Karunaratne told Daily News Business.

The implementation of the new system of granting credit to the public will help immensely to improve their standards of living with new investments.

This method is being used in most developed countries, he said.

The lending institutions and banks have limited their lending facilities for a selected crowd depending on their capability of refunds, but with the implementation of this type of lending programs the credit market will further expand into the rural community also. This will benefit the rural community as well as the SME sectors in the country and eventually there will be tremendous regional developments which will expand into the national level, he said.