Everyone who contacted a bank or microfinance organization at least once in their life to get a loan had to deal with the work of a credit bureau. BKI is a commercial company that collects and processes data on borrowers. Information obtained from such a company helps lenders find out if there are risks when issuing a loan to an individual. Based on information about the client, banks make a decision on approval or denial of a consumer loan.
Credit Bureau - what is it?
Commercial organizations that consolidate information about borrowers in Russia have been operating since the early 2000s. Previously, data on payers was stored only in the archives of banks. If a client wanted to get a consumer loan, the manager had to independently calculate the possible risks for a financial institution.
With the advent of BCI, banks were given the opportunity within 5 minutes to study the data on the borrower, formed on the basis of all the obligations of the client. Information from the credit bureaus includes information collected in the analysis of all loan agreements of the payer.
The history in the BCI has been preserved for 15 years. A borrower who has repeatedly made delays in payments may receive a refusal from creditors during the specified period.
How many credit bureaus are there in Russia?
At the end of 2017, 18 BKIs were officially registered in the Russian Federation. These are companies that submitted information to the registry of the Central Catalog of Credit Histories.
But not all bureaus are licensed. In 2018, only 4 BICs received the right to analyze data on payers. These are JSC National Bureau of Credit Histories (NBCH), LLC Credit Bureau "Russian Standard" (information organization of the bank "Russian Standard"), ZAO "United Credit Bureau" (OKB) and LLC "Equifax Credit Services" (EX) .
How is the request made at the bureau?
To obtain information about the relationship of the borrower with the creditors, banks (or MFIs) send a request to the BCI. It takes no more than 10 minutes. In 9 out of 10 financial organizations, there is an agreement with a specific bureau that promptly provides data.
If there is no information about the client, this means that the borrower has never taken a loan or his story has been updated. 90% of the data in different BICs coincide, because when applying for a loan or credit card, all companies send information to several bureaus at the same time.
The largest companies among lenders are the largest companies, for example, Russian Standard Standard Design Bureau or Design Bureau.
Credit bureau services - for banks or individuals?
Individuals can check their history in the BCI. The service is popular, especially for customers with late payments. Payers can find out why they do not give a loan both in the bureaus themselves and in some banks (for example, Sberbank of Russia PJSC) and microfinance organizations.
According to the Federal Law “On Credit Histories” dated December 30, 2004 N 218-, once a year a citizen can receive an extract from the bureau for free. If the report compiled by the company does not suit the client, he can re-make a request to another organization on a commercial basis.
The cost of the service varies by company. On average, an extract order will cost the borrower from 390 to 1,190 rubles.
Certificate from the credit bureau: the main sections of the document
Extracts from information centers consist of several sections:
- Information about the borrower.
- Data on obligations.
- Query history.
The first block of BKI includes the name of the client, address, passport data, SNILS, contact information, information about family members, income. The most important section is commitment. Everything is taken into account here:
- loan applications;
- current and paid loans, credit cards, mortgages;
- surety agreements;
- information on the total payer debt as of the date of the request;
- information on overdue contributions, prepayment, restructuring.
The last block includes data from all banks (and from other lenders) that sent the request to the BCI, and the number of applications from the client himself.
Borrower rating in a credit bureau: concept, definition
The data in the BCI are automatically processed and generated by the specialists of the analytical department. Based on the information received, a rating of the borrower is compiled. This is an indicator characterizing its reliability and reflecting possible financial risks for the bank.
The higher the rating, the more chances a client has for approving a loan. The point system is convenient for both lenders and payers: information on rating accrual / deduction is displayed in the statement of the BCI. The Bureau evaluates the history of the borrower, indicating a brief description.
Customers with bad credit histories have problems getting a loan. Depending on the number of late payments, banks may refuse such payers for 5-10 years.
Reliability of data of credit bureaus: is there any reason to doubt the results?
Bad credit history is a surprise for many borrowers. Clients refuse to believe that BCIs have been storing data for years, so they require the provision of relevant information.
But to question the activities of the staff of the analytical bureau is only if the borrower has evidence of error. For example, in the received certificate the payer's date of birth is incorrectly indicated. In large cities (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novgorod), the number of residents whose names are completely identical can reach hundreds of people. An error in the passport data or information about the borrower itself threatens to receive information about another person.
In this case, the borrower has the right to resend the request to the bureau to correct the questionnaire. Based on current information, the bank is not entitled to refuse the customer a new application for consumer credit.
Sometimes the information in the BKI does not include information on obligations if the period for updating data on them is less than 2 weeks. For example, the payer repays the mortgage and orders an extract on the same day. In the certificate from the credit bureau, the mortgage agreement will be indicated as valid, since the bank has not yet transferred the information to BKI.
Borrower Rating Correction
A low score in an extract from the bureau forces borrowers to look for ways to increase it. Contrary to the opinion of some payers, BKI does not improve credit history.
The responsibility of the information authority is to consolidate data on an impartial basis. Bureau specialists are not entitled to change the credit history of clients for better or worse. An attempt to influence the relations of the borrower with lenders will be regarded as a juggling of data, which entails a loss of the company's reputation. In case of suspicion of intentional violations on the part of employees, the borrower can send a complaint about the activities of the bureau to Rospotrebnadzor or appeal to the judicial authorities with a statement of claim.
In 5% of cases, a black credit history is associated with a banking error. For example, the borrower repaid obligations under the loan agreement on time, and the lender did not update the information in the system. As a result, the payer who repaid the debt is listed in the BCI database as a borrower with a long delay.
If a low rating of the payer is set due to the fault of the bank, the client should contact the lender to correct the situation. Managers will send a letter to BKI with a request to introduce new information about the borrower. The term for updating the credit history when making adjustments is about 30 days. After the specified period, it is recommended to make a new request in the BKI to make sure the problem is solved.