Bureau seeing increase in loan defaults by customers

MORE than 13,000 defaults have been noted so far this year by the Credit Data Bureau (CDB), a notable increase from last year’s figures for the same period.
The bulk of defaults were unsecured personal loans which made up over 90 per cent of records, followed by small business, bureau general manager Bruce Mackinlay says.
The Credit Data Bureau was established by a number of leading financial institutions like Bank South Pacific and Credit Corporation.
“Members share credit data of customers online for informed business decisions. This year to date, CDB members have uploaded 13,322 defaults for consumers and companies,” Mckinlay said.
“This is a significant increase compared to the same period last year.
“Members are recognising the effectiveness of the default uploading service and becoming more active in this area.
“There are now more than 341,698 consumer records and 21,950 company records on the CDB database.”
These numbers continue to increase. “In the past two years, 19 new members were added and now there are 173 active members of CDB in PNG,” McKinlay said.
“Our continuing growth can be attributed to the effectiveness of our services.
“Our clients obtain accurate credit information from the database, online and in real time.”
Mackinlay said credit history information assisted members in making lending or credit decisions, and recovering debts.
“CDB members can indicate to customers who are in default that the data may be uploaded to CDB database,” he said.
“By uploading loan or credit default information, CDB members can expect to make recoveries.
“This is because the data will appear on the CDB record of their customers’ loan or credit applications.
“Our services are useful for any businesses that lend money or give credit, or who are owed money.
“Our membership and database continue to grow.
“Our members have now recovered over K307 million since we commenced 10 years ago.”