Credit bureaus herald era of financial discipline

Some vital information such as date of birth, gender, identification number may be missing.

Is this not negligence on the part of the bank to miss such information under ‘know your customer’ matrix?

They may have this information but on a piece of paper. Inputting loads of data manually takes time, yet we need it electronically. However, most of the banks in Kenya have most of the data we need.

Reporting protocol is another issue since the requirement is that the information should be updated monthly in order to ensure accuracy, which is the responsibility of the bank since they are dealing with the borrowers.

What impact can we expect on the economy?

Statistics shows credit bureaus can make a difference of between 2-5 per cent on GDP for example in Latin America countries. But it all depends on the implementation of the bureau.

It can only be effected is information is submitted and shared across the board, what we call full-file information, where all economic sectors are involved.

Though non-performing rate has come down substantial from 40 per cent in the 1990s to about 10 per cent, we expect this to reduce even further since banks will not lend blindly.