CBK licenses third credit information sharing firm

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has licensed a third firm to offer loan information-sharing services.

The regulator said in a statement it had issued the permit to Creditinfo Credit Reference Bureau Kenya Ltd.

It joins Credit Reference Bureau Africa Ltd and Metropol Credit Reference Bureau Ltd which were licensed in February 2010 and April 2011, respectively.

The bureaus receive, collate, compile and share with authorised users details of borrowers’ histories from approved data sources.

“Creditinfo Credit Reference Bureau Kenya Ltd is majorly owned by Creditinfo International GmbH, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany. It offers credit information services as well as customer support in risk management,” said the CBK.

The company has credit information sharing operations in 15 other countries including Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Malta, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Iceland, Jamaica, Cape Verde, Tanzania and Guyana.

The bureaus in Kenya are authorised to receive credit information from institutions licensed under the Banking Act and Microfinance Act (2006) as well as other approved third-party data sources such as utility firms.

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Credit information sharing in Kenya’s banking sector was rolled out in July 2010. Between August 2010 and January 2014 commercial banks were mandated to submit only negative credit information through the licensed bureaus.

In 2013, the Credit Reference Bureau Regulations were amended to allow all commercial banks and microfinance banks to submit full credit information - both positive and negative – to the licensed bureaus from February 2014.