By Omodele Adigun
As part of their due diligence in granting credit facilities, banks should obtain reports of borrowers from credit bureaux, their regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has said.
The apex bank gave this order in its report on ‘Monetary, credit, foreign trade and exchange policy guidelines for the fiscal years 2020/2021’.
It also mandated that the operations of private credit bureaux would be guided by the provisions of the Credit Reporting Act, 2017 and the National Credit Reporting System Regulation, 2019.
The regulator added that all banks and other financial institutions should continue to have data exchange agreements with at least two licensed credit bureaux.
It stated: “Obtain credit reports from at least two licensed credit bureaux in addition to the CBN CRMS before granting any new credit facility, or when reviewing, renewing or restructuring an existing facility;
“Obtain credit reports for quarterly credit reviews on all existing facilities from at least two licensed credit bureaux; upload loan data on all its existing credit customers to credit bureaux with which it has executed data exchange agreements.”
It also said banks should update any change in the data submitted to a credit bureau pursuant to relevant provision of the Act, at least on a monthly basis or more frequently, or in accordance with a schedule provided by the credit bureau.
In order to improve the credit space and unlock access to consumer and retail loans, it said the banks should require all identified data controllers to provide data to a central depository.