Frequently Asked Questions

Ans. A Credit Information Bureau (CIB) is an organization that collects and collates credit data on borrowers from its member financial institutions. The financial data is then aggregated in system and the resulting information (in the form of credit reports) is made available online on request to contributing member financial institutions for the purpose of credit assessment, credit scoring and credit risk management. The major purpose of this database is to enable the Financial Institutions(FIs) to know the credit history of their prospective customers thus enabling them to make informed and timely lending decisions.

Ans. All Banks, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), Non- Bank Financial Companies (NBFCs), and Micro Finance Banks operating in Pakistan are members of the eCIB database. The membership with eCIB, as per instructions of SBP, is mandatory for all Banks, Developmental Financial Institutions (DFIs) and Micro Finance Banks (MFBs). No financial institution can access the eCIB database without obtaining membership of eCIB of State Bank of Pakistan.

Ans. All member FIs are required to submit entire borrowers’ records online to eCIB on monthly basis. This information is submitted within a period of 15 days from the date of close of every month.

Yes. It is mandatory for Financial Institutions (FIs) to obtain CIR of their prospective and existing borrowers before extending/renewing any financial facility. However, before allowing any facility, the banks / DFIs shall preferably obtain credit report from the Credit Information Bureau of which they are a member. The report will be given due weightage while making credit decision.

credit-bureaus

No. The eCIB is legally empowered to collect credit information from its member financial institutions. The financial institutions are required to report entire credit records irrespective of any limit to eCIB. The information in eCIB database is shared on reciprocal basis.

No. Presently, under the relevant provision of law, only member financial institutions have online access to eCIB servers for generating CIR of borrowers for their internal use. The CIR is a confidential document and cannot be provided to borrowers. While State Bank of Pakistan has issued license(s) to private credit bureau(s) under Credit Bureau Act-2015(CBA-2015). Borrowers can get their Credit Report from private credit bureau(s) once they are operational as provided in the Credit Bureau Act-2015.

No SBP’s regulations/instructions do not place any restriction on banks and financial institutions on lending to any person/organization which has overdue appearing against its account in eCIB or has a late payment/overdue/write off history. The financial institutions have to make their own lending decision on the basis of their lending policies, past track record of borrower and his repayment capacity.

No. Negative credit Information Report (CIR) does not debar any individual from seeking any financing facility from any financial institutions in Pakistan. The financial institutions make lending decision on the basis of information available to them and in the light of their own lending policies, borrower’s total exposure, repayment track and capacity.

The credit information reports neither express any opinion about the borrower creditworthiness nor assign any rating to the borrowers. It provides factual position of the borrowers’ credit exposure both negative as well as positive as of certain date. Further, the placement of name in eCIB does not prevent anyone from entering into lawful relationship with the banks. The eCIB report merely reflects the outstanding and overdue position of the borrower without declaring the borrower as a defaulter.

The eCIB does not amend any CIR at its own, on the request of borrower. The onus of reporting accurate data to the eCIB rests with the reporting financial institution; hence eCIB cannot verify the borrower’s claim at its end. Any correction in eCIB data can only be made through the reporting financial institution.

The banks and financial institutions are required to make an online interim update of the borrowers’ record immediately but not later than 10 days from the date of settlement of overdue. The interim update statement reflects in “remarks” portion and overdue amount will subsequently be cleared in the reporting month to which it pertains. However, history of such overdue will continue to be reflected for 12 months from the date of settlement.

The CIR becomes negative due to erratic repayment behavior. The negative CIR report may either be due to some late payment/overdue outstanding liabilities or some written-off liabilities appearing against your record. The borrowers may contact with lending financial institutions and work out a repayment/settlement plan for settlement of overdue liabilities. However, history of such overdue will continue to be reflected for 12 months from the date of settlement.  Once loan account becomes regular, CIR will reflect the revised position. However, borrowers should take utmost care in timely repayment of outstanding liabilities in order to keep their track clean.

In case of consumer borrower (individual), the CIB maintains the history of financial records of past twelve months. This means that if a borrower settles late overdue/default write off liability with financial institutions, such outstanding position will continue to appear in CIR for the next 12 months from the date of settlement. However, his current status will be reported as regular.

Yes. The financial institutions are subject to penal actions under the provision of law on account of misreporting/erroneous reporting in eCIB database.

Please approach your concerned FI and if the dispute/complaint is not resolved then you can approach eCIB through helpdesk, the link of which is given below: -

https://www.sbp.org.pk/our-operations/consumer-protection

Please note that SBP does not interfere/take up matters which are already pending before a court of law or any legal forum.