About the Credit Report

The Credit Report incorporates the following credit information of a borrower:

Outstanding Credit (s)

All outstanding credit facility obtained by the borrower, either under -
      (a) his own name;
      (b) a joint name with another person;
      (c) a name of a sole proprietorship; or
      (d) a partnership or a professional body.

Such outstanding credit facility would exclude any accounts which have been fully settled.

Special Attention Account (s)

All outstanding credit facility under close supervision by financial institutions.

Application(s) for Credit
 

All applications approved in the previous 12 months for the borrower, either under –
      (a) his own name;
      (b) a joint name with another person;
      (c) a name of a sole proprietorship; or
      (d) a partnership or a professional body.

The applications would not include any application that have been rejected, deleted or cancelled.

Understanding the credit information

Find out what information is being collected by the Credit Bureau, who supplies these information and the Act governing its confidentiality.

1. Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS)
The information reported to the Credit Bureau is housed in a computerised database system known as the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS). At present, the database system contains credit information on about 9 million borrowers in Malaysia.

CCRIS automatically processes the credit data received from the financial institutions and synthesises the information into credit reports, which can be made available to the financial institutions upon request.

2. Credit Information Held by the Credit Bureau

The Credit Bureau of Bank Negara Malaysia collects only credit information on individuals, businesses (sole proprietors and partnerships), companies, and even Government entities borrowers. The credit information collected by the Credit Bureau is sourced by the participating financial institutions in Malaysia. These financial institutions include all licensed commercial banks, Islamic banks, investment banks and several other financial institutions. In addition, reference information on the particulars of borrowers is sourced from the National Registration Department (Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara) and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia ) for purposes of verification against the particulars provided by the financial institutions. The data is updated by the data providers on a regular basis.

For each and every borrower, the financial institutions are required to report to the Credit Bureau the following types of data:

• Personal particulars of borrower such as name, identification number, address, etc
• Credit facility account details such as type of credit facilities, credit limit, outstanding balance, conduct of account and legal action status, if any.

3. Confidentiality of Information

One of the greatest challenges to Bank Negara Malaysia in providing credit bureau services to the financial institutions is the need to ensure and maintain the confidentiality of information on borrowers while promoting a strong credit culture. Towards this end the Credit Bureau adopts stringent procedures that are guided by legal provisions in the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 1958, the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (BAFIA) and the Islamic Banking Act 1983 (IBA).

The legal provisions basically set limitations governing access to the information and imposes severe penalties to deter unauthorised access, abuse or misuse of the information. In this regard, authorised access is limited to the purpose of credit evaluation. D isclosure to third parties is strictly prohibited. The credit information provided by the Credit Bureau to a financial institution is classified and confidential. As such, the financial institution is required to observe the banking secrecy provisions in the BAFIA and the IBA. These laws prohibit the financial institutions from divulging the affairs of their borrowers except in legally permitted circumstances such as in the course of any court proceedings between the borrower and the financial institution or when the disclosure is authorised under any Federal law.

In line with the law, the Credit Bureau can only furnish personal credit information to a financial institution for the purpose of assisting the financial institution to evaluate a credit facility application or for a periodical credit review if the person is an existing borrower. The financial institutions are not allowed to access credit information for purposes other than evaluating credit facility application or credit review. For example, financial institutions cannot use the credit report to market their financial products or services.

The usage of credit reports in the financial institutions is strictly regulated by guidelines issued to the institutions by Bank Negara Malaysia . In addition, information security is protected by the use of smart card and other secured technologies. To deter access for unauthorised uses, the CCRIS database keeps a record of all requests for credit reports from the financial institutions, detailing which financial institution and its officer whom has accessed to the database as well as the time of access. This would allow the Credit Bureau and the internal auditors of the financial institutions to see know who has sought information on any particular borrower at any particular time.

4. Accuracy of Credit Information

It is important for the information on credit stored by the Credit Bureau to be accurate. While the Credit Bureau is dependant on financial institutions to provide correct information, it accepts the duty to take all possible measures to ensure this. Quality control checks are built in at every stage of the Credit Bureau's operation, from the collection of data, through data capture, loading into the CCRIS database and during its use. The accuracy of credit information is also dependant on correct information supplied by the financial institutions as well as a timely update of credit information by the financial institutions.

Critical particulars like MyKad and name supplied by the financial institutions are compared and verified against the official records of the National Registration Department and the Companies Commission of Malaysia. Any anomalies and inconsistencies would be raised to the financial institutions and the authorities concerned. Credit information provided by the financial institutions is a copy of their own records. When submitted to the CCRIS database, the information is subjected to data integrity tests to seek out inconsistencies or errors. The financial institutions are required to rectify the inconsistencies and errors within two weeks.

5. Financial Institutions Participating in CCRIS

Commercial Banks

Islamic Banks

Investment Banks

Development Banks

Insurance Companies

Payment Instrument Issuers

Rehabilitation Institution

Credit/Leasing Business