Now, insurers & telcos too can check your credit history

CHENNAI/MUMBAI: Mobile phone operators may reject your application for a post-paid connection if they are not satisfied with your credit data! And insurance companies too could look at your credit history before proposing the premium for your policy .

On Friday, Credit Information Bureau India (CIBIL), India���s first credit information company, along with three other companies, got RBI nod to set up or continue their business of providing credit history of individuals and companies to institutions registered with it.

Interestingly, the act also gives individuals the right to know about their credit history from the credit bureaus.
The RBI nod, which forms part of the Central Information Companies (Regulation ) Act, 2005, will now allow companies from telecommunications and insurance space to access credit data. Prior to this, only financial institutions like banks and NBFCs could access and share credit data.



Other than CIBIL, the three companies which got RBI nod are Equifax Credit Information Services (an Equifax of USCRISIL-Tata Capital venture), Experian Credit Information Co, and Highmark Credit Information Services, an RBI release said. There were 13 companies which had applied to the central bank for registration as a credit bureau. RBI did not disclose the name of the nine which did not qualify.

���The approval gives us the right to continue our operations and allows telecom companies and insurers to access the CIBIL database. We need to develop and enable our systems so that all this can be put to effect soon,������ Terry McCafferty, COO, CIBIL, said.

According to CICA, telecom and insurance companies are not under obligation to contribute data but can access data from CIBIL. As of now, about 160 financial institutions contribute as well as access credit data to CIBIL���s database. CIBIL currently has a database of over 135 million accounts .

���We have been in discussions with telecom companies related to the application of credit data for their use. However, our discussions with insurers are limited at this stage,������ McCafferty said.