The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has extended the list of third party Credit Information Providers (CIP) to 1,994 institutions, which will see more data, provided to Kenya’s Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs).
This means that CRBs will now collaborate with third party institutions to provide credit history of borrowers in the country.
“The Regulations allow Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs) to source for credit information from third parties in order to enhance their databases, to provide a complete and comprehensive credit history of the borrower,” said the CBK.
It is after the CRBs conducted a comprehensive due diligence on the sources and obtaining approval from the CBK.
These third party list according to CBK data include 1,327 non-deposit taking savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), 600 trading companies, 50 insurance providers & brokers, six development finance institutions and six self help groups.
Others are three parastatals which include the National Housing Corporation (NHC), the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), Kenya Tourism Development Corporation Limited, one learning institution (Kenyatta University) and one community based organisation ( the Community Based Organisation Scheme).
Any of the 1,994 entities will be obliged to provide information on borrowers to guide CRBs in determining their creditworthiness.
Kenya has three CRBs, which include Metropol Corporation, Credit Reference Bureau Africa better known as TransUnion and Creditnfo.
The Credit Information Sharing (CIS) mechanism is regulated in accordance with the CRB Regulations (2020).
The Regulations require that customers are protected and a mechanism for handling customer complaints be in place to ensure customers’ complaints or disputes are handled expeditiously.
The third party credit information providers serve to complement information provided by mandatory CRB subscribers – commercial banks, micro-finance banks and deposit taking SACCOs.
