The Reserve Bank of India has set up a committee to consider creation of a Public Credit Registry (PCR) to be operated by it. Deputy governor Viral Acharya said the proposed registry will be near real-time and will aid credit assessment not just by lenders but of the lenders themselves. It is expected to be an extensive database of credit information for India that is accessible to all stakeholders. The idea is to capture all relevant information in one large database on the borrower and the borrower’s entire set of borrowing contracts and outcomes. At present, there are 4 credit bureaus in India -TransUnion CIBIL, Equifax, Experian and CRIF Highmark. Apart from these, there is a Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) in RBI, which has been created to cater to supervisory needs by tracking large exposures. Experts feel a PCR can help banks in credit assessment and pricing of credit as well as in making risk-based, dynamic and counter-cyclical provisioning.
