Free credit report for all, says RBI

The RBI said electronic report should be provided upon request and after due verification about the authenticity of the customer

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday directed credit information companies (CIC) to provide free credit reports in full to individuals whose credit score is maintained with the agency, effective January 1. 

The electronic report should be provided upon request and after due verification about the authenticity of the customer, any time during the calendar year, RBI said.  

“This report must show the latest position of the credit institutions’ exposure to the individual as per records available with the CIC,” RBI said in its notification, adding, the contents of the report should be the “same as appearing in the most detailed version of the reports on the individual provided to credit institutions, including the credit score”.

An RBI-appointed committee headed by HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri had recommended that each customer of a credit institution be provided one base-level consumer credit information report free of cost every year by each credit information company.

RBI went ahead a few steps to recommend the report should be full, as “given the importance of the credit report in an individual’s financial matters, he/she is entitled to have a copy of the report upon request,” RBI said in its notification. 

Further, the objective of providing the free credit report would not be fully met unless this report includes details that figure in the full credit report that is accessed by the credit institutions while considering the request for fresh credit facilities, RBI said, adding, “the report should also provide an opportunity to the borrower to have the errors, if any, in her/his credit history rectified.”

The credit information companies should notify on their website the procedure for accessing the report, RBI said.