RBI Kick-Starts Process To Set Up Public Credit Registry For Capturing Details Of Borrowers

The Reserve Bank has initiated steps to set up a digital Public Credit Registry to capture details of all borrowers, including wilful defaulters and also the pending legal suits in order to check financial delinquencies.

The PCR will also include data from entities like Securities and Exchange Board of India, the corporate affairs ministry, Goods and Service Tax Network and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India to enable banks and financial institutions to get 360-degree profile of existing and prospective borrowers on a real-time basis.

The Reserve Bank has invited expression of interest for developing the registry from companies with a turnover of over Rs 100 crore in the last three years.

In June this year, the RBI had announced its intent to set up a PCR for India to address information asymmetry, foster access to credit and strengthen the credit culture in the economy.

Earlier, a high-level task force was constituted by the RBI to review the current availability of information on credit, the adequacy of the existing information utilities, and identify gaps that could be filled by a PCR.

The PCR would be the single point of mandatory reporting for all material events for each loan, notwithstanding any threshold in the loan amount or type of borrower.

Currently, there are multiple granular credit information repositories in India, with each having somewhat distinct objectives and coverage.

Within the RBI, Central Repository of Information on Large Credits is a borrower level supervisory dataset with a threshold in aggregate exposure of Rs 5 crore.

Also, there are four privately owned credit information companies operating in India. The RBI has mandated all its regulated entities to submit credit information individually to all four CICs.

As per the EOI, the proposed solution should allow easy integration with ancillary information sources, like the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI, GSTN, Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest, utility billers, Central Fraud Registry and wilful defaulter/caution/suit filed lists.

Besides, borrowers would also be able to access their own credit information and seek corrections to the credit information reported on them.

Setting up of the PCR assumes significance amidst rising bad loans in the financial system. The non-performing assets in the banking system is about Rs 10 lakh crore.