The World Bank especially appreciated the interconnection of Banking (BRKI) and Non-Banking (NRKI) registers of client information in the Czech credit market which started at the beginning of 2006. Both managed by CCB, a CRIF company, These registers enable banks to view debtors of leasing and consumer credit companies and vice versa. The quality of credit information accessibility and the area coverage of BRKI and NRKI credit bureaus gained particular favour.
The existence of registers featuring both positive and negative information going back for more than 2 years, the possibility for locals to access to their personal credit history and the coverage of credit bureaus exceeding 50% of the adult population, ranked the Czech Republic in a leading position amongst Central and Eastern European countries.
From a global standpoint, according to the World Bank, Great Britain shows the best credit environment, followed by Hong Kong, Australia, Germany and Malaysia. On the contrary, the worst conditions seem to affect Afghanistan and Cambodia.
72% of the credit bureaus from all 175 countries inspected by the World Bank contain both positive and negative information, while purely negative registers make up only 28%. A similar trend can be identified in the much smaller Central and Eastern European area, where the number of private credit bureaus increased from 5 to 12 during 2005 and 2006, and most of them contain negative as well as positive information.
In particular, in the Czech Republic, positive registers BRKI and NRKI have gradually become a standard tool for the evaluation of credit applicants. For example, in 2006 alone, banks performed more than 2.4 million inquiries on the BRKI register, 41% more than in 2005. Leasing and consumer credit companies performed about 414 thousand inquiries on the NRKI register in the second year of its operation.
A much more significant indicator for credit bureau users is the percentage of enquiries that successfully identify a credit applicant on the registers – the so-called hit-rate. In this respect, the Czech Republic has much longer credit bureaus history than other questioned countries.
For instance, in 2006 hit rate was around 81% in the BRKI, while for NRKI the hit-rate is constantly increasing, growing by 30% last year - a trend that will most likely to continue during the current year.
Besides reducing risks of bureaus users and their clients, the credit registers are also sources of important information about credit market and its trends. In fact last statistics have proven that volumes of investment credits has increased significantly in 2006.
