Credit information companies to issue 1 credit report a year per customer

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) has mandated every credit information company ( CIC) in the country to release one credit report a year per customer free of cost in a digital format so that individuals can log into any of the websites of the credit bureaus of India and enjoy this benefit directly.

“All CICs shall put in place necessary systems to provide access to the above described free full credit report ( FFCR) once, at any time, during a year, upon request, to individuals whose credit data they hold, from the year commencing January 1, 2017,” said the RBI in a release on Thursday.

The suggestion of a free credit score was submitted long back by a committee that was constituted by the central bank to Recommend Data Format for Furnishing of Credit Information chaired by Aditya Puri, managing director of HDFC Bank, but after a lot of dithering by the credit bureaus, it has finally been mandated. “I believe there are about 400 million people on the credit bureaus and this will directly benefit the consumers and also help increase credit literacy.

Another important takeaway is that people can now access credit reports from multiple bureaus and check for discrepancies,” said Arun Ramamurthy, an ex-banker who runs his own credit improvement organisation, Credit Sudhaar in another circular issued in a bid to increase card-based transactions by merchants, the RBI has directed banks to streamline merchant discount rates ( MDR) structure and unbundle the charges.

The regulator observed that in many instances, charges for merchants were bundled and a composite fee was levied on merchants irrespective of the type of card used. Regarding the unbundling of MDR, the central bank said that this practice hindered adherence to the regulatory mandate and disincentivised merchants from accepting cards.