Credit Bureau to expand into data analysis
The National Credit Bureau (NCB) plans to expand its business into credit-information analysis over the next two years to supply the country's need for this service, CEO Niwat Kanjanaphomin said last week.
Currently the NCB is limited to providing credit information only on customers of financial institutions that are members of the bureau. The bureau's expansion requires an amendment of the relevant law, which is still under consideration by the Credit Information Protection Committee. But the NCB expects its expansion plan to be completed over the next two years. Niwat said the bureau's plan covered three core areas: lCredit-information statistical analysis lConsumer-credit scoring lCredit-information development to support the Basel II standard For consumer-credit scoring, the bureau will provide services similar to credit-rating agencies, classifying how each individual borrower is ranked regarding risk level. Niwat said this would help financial institutions reduce their risk of bad debts. "Financial institutions in some countries that use the consumer-credit rating services of credit bureaus record higher loan-approval rates because they have clearer customer information," Niwat said. But he added that loan approvals normally depended on several criteria besides information from the credit bureaus. He said the NCB would provide credit information to financial institutions using Basel II standards in terms of capital requirements. Financial institutions will use the bureau's credit information to develop risk-management models estimating capital requirements per customer. He said requests for credit information from the bureau had increased to around 4,000 per month as of the end of January this year compared with around 2,000 a month in the same period last year. These came mostly from new members of the bureau wanting to check the credit information on new-loan applications. Currently, the NCB collects credit information on 45 million accounts from 80 member financial institutions, both bank and non-bank, up from 20 million accounts and 60 members two years ago. Of the 45 million customer accounts, 10 million, or around 30 per cent, are credit-card customers. The rest are leases, personal mortgages and others.
Somruedi Banchongduang The Nation
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