CRIB takes credit reporting to new realm

The Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka brought the stakeholders of the banking and finance industry together in a landmark event seeking to build a better credit regime in the country with special emphasis on accurate credit reporting. The symposium held at Hilton Hotel and included credit specialists from the region who shared the experience of their own countries in building a better bridge with lending institutions and borrowers.

Expert panellists engaged the forum in deliberation of the current credit regime and its most compelling issues before presenting a series of solutions.

Compliance Officers representing all licensed banks and finance companies received a comprehensive understanding of management aspects pivotal to accurate reporting.

Accurate maintenance of individual Credit Reports which depict the borrowing and servicing history of borrowers was identified as the key to creating an efficient and reliable credit reporting system.

Lending institutions relies heavily on credit reports before disbursement of loans, making accuracy of such reports the cornerstone of progress.

“This Symposium constitutes a major milestone in educating officials on how best to interpret and apply credit information in a fair manner,” CRIB General Manager Gamini Karunaratne said.

“Our vision is to achieve an increasingly disciplined and systematic approach to servicing lending decisions and Compliance Officers have been made to understand their role in making this a reality,” he said.

CRIB’s ambitious pursuance of its mandate in creating a responsible and credit-worthy society manifested in its latest publication, a comprehensive operational guide which was launched at the annual symposium.

Billed by its publishers as an A to Z of Bureau operations and a Bible for compliance officers, the new credit almanac was presented to CRIB’s outgoing Chairman and Deputy Central Bank Governor Priyantha Fernando.

CRIB currently maintains a credit database of over four million people and is a depository of information relating to credit application and repayment records.

Its key objective is to improve the accuracy of the credit information disseminated in the form of credit reports to its shareholding lending institutions and simultaneously to borrowers and prospective borrowers.

A common theme of speakers was the removal of barriers to a wide range of financial services in order to unleash private enterprise productivity.

It was observed that the asset-based lending industry has grown rapidly with emerging markets like Sri Lanka still dependent on immovable assets as collateral greatly inhibiting growth among SMEs.

The banking and finance industry were appraised of the impending benefits to the country as a whole with the introduction of a Secured Transactions Register expected to throw open the gates of development.

CRIB has developed into an increasingly important link in the country’s financial infrastructure and CRIB members have now expanded to over 90 banks, registered finance companies and specialized leasing companies. On average, more than 5,000 credit reports are supplied daily.