The Credit Bureau Cambodia at the five-month mark

Almost five months after the launch of the Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC), experts agree that it has given financial institutions valuable new access to information about creditworthiness of potential borrowers, improving efficiency and loan quality. At the same time, there are still a few rough patches as the data coming in to the central database is error-prone. … While the information helps cut down on the number of bad loans on banks’ and MFIs’ books, it also makes it harder for customers to take on debt they can’t handle. The CBC consolidates credit information to prevent overlapping loans. Before the Bureau’s existence data on a customer’s credit history was not shared among lenders and many people were in the habit of borrowing, from more than one institution. … Some have criticized the prices of credit report from the CBC as being too high. For loans under US$500, a report costs US$0.20 while the price jumps to US$3 for loans over US$500. Sathapana MFI pays around $10,000 per month for credit reports on its customers.