China’s central bank has launched an updated version of its credit information system covering 1 billion individuals and more than 28 million corporate clients, which it says will provide more accurate profiles of loan applicants.
The upgraded system – which is used by the nation’s lenders to evaluate potential clients’ creditworthiness – went online on Sunday. The upgrades include improvements to the information gathering and processing functions, as well as the technical framework and security, according to the credit bureau of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
The state-run database, which was introduced in 2006, is regarded as a key “national financial infrastructure project” and central to Beijing’s ambitions to create a “credit society” by this year.
It works by collecting information from thousands of institutions that track individuals’ and companies’ credit records.
The new credit reports produced by the system will contain more information than before, including details of a loan applicant’s spouse, financial guarantors, employment status, credit card records and instalment plans, the PBOC said.
The central bank also plans to use the system to collect data about debts shared by groups of people, and individuals’ utility payment records – and the failure to pay gas and water bills in a timely manner could lead to a black mark on a person’s credit report.
It will also cover five years of financial records, rather than two as before.