Prague, 19/01/2006

The exchange of information between the two registers will, into large extent, prevent certain clients from over-indebting and it will at the same time reduce the credit risk of the financial companies. This will bring along better conditions for the so-called good clients and the possibility to better develop their credit history", said today Petr Kučera, executive director of CCB - Czech Credit Bureau, shareholding company, which ensures services connected with the operation of the two registers.
How will the information exchange work? A financial institution where a client applies for a credit product of some type, will receive information not only from the register whose member it is, but also from the respective register on the basis of a signed contract on the data exchange, and it will thus begin to develop a client's credit history. The inquiry to both the registers is, however, conditioned by the so-called principle of double approval - the client must first approve the particular company to even place its inquiry, in the same way as he or she had earlier had to approve that the data on his or her previous credit contracts were included into the registers. Some membership companies of the two registers began to collect new approvals for data sharing in September 2005, other companies have begun implementing them on a gradual basis. "We expect that the so-called 'shared database' (i.e., the number of contracts prepared for the exchange with the respective register) will therefore grow rapidly, because almost three million records on either new or applied-for credit contracts have been included into the two registers in the course of the past year only," added Petr Kučera.
 
The Banking and Non-Banking Registers are standard credit registers of European parameters and they include not only negative but also positive information about the payment morale and credibility of banks' clients (Banking Register) and clients of leasing and/or installment companies (Non-Banking Register). Contrary to the negative registers, they do not solely refer to the historical debts of those who are applying for credit products but, with the help of the positive pay-off history, they allow the good clients to receive higher-quality and faster services even in the case of the clients' previous eventual minor misbehavior(s). The substantial effect is the higher accessibility of credits and the reduction of the price of money - experiences from abroad show that, in the case of consumer credits for physical persons and entrepreneurs with excellent credit history, the price of money can be reduced of as much as 2-4 %. At the same time, the number of accepted credit contracts increases of 11 %. In the final effect, this can influence the GDP increase of almost 1 %.

Currently, the membership companies of the Banking Client Information Register and Non-Banking Client Information Register have already covered 95 % of banking, over 90 % of leasing and approximately 50 % of credit markets. The Non-Banking Register at present negotiates the future membership with more than 10 other leasing and installment companies as well as providers of telecommunication services and power suppliers.

Upon joining the register, the share of the unrecoverable credits of the financial institutions in the countries with the universal positive registers is reduced of 25-45 % in average The positive credit registers that represent the standard in 14 countries of EU15 are of key importance to the financial institutions, because they are sources of information necessary in the decision-making process concerning almost all credit-active clients. For example, in the database of the Banking Register - at the very high rate of finding a client (the so-called hit-rate of 80 %) - there are only 376 thousand contracts of the total number of over 7.8 million credit contracts to display signs of not paying off a debt. The decision-making process, too, proceeds much faster, because the average time of providing a response to an inquiry addressed to the register is about 5 seconds.
“The information exchange between the two registers allows us to better apply the principles of responsible crediting and to find a solution for a client who has already become over-indebted as well as to enable him or her to receive a credit product for fulfilling his or her financial needs. The data sharing will have also positive impact on the market because it will allow the financial institutions reduce the risk extra charge, and thus to lower the price of the credits provided to clients," said today Pavel Vyhnálek, Country Chief Risk Officer of the GE Money. “The positive information included in the registers moreover gives a chance to differentiate between clients who currently have or have had short-term problems, but otherwise have been always fulfilling their obligations, and those clients who do not pay off their obligations consistently. If they have sometimes forgotten to or could not have paid in time, but otherwise have always fulfilled their obligations, we look at them in a completely different way than at clients about whose ability to pay off their credits we have no information at all,” added Frank-Michael Beitz, director of the Section of Credit Risks of Ceská sporitelna, a.s. BLOCKQUOTE>

The data can be used for a strictly set purpose – to evaluate the credibility and payment morale of a particular client – and they are secured against any misuse or marketing use by the register members. Each client will have the possibility to check and verify the information on his or her person through the client centers of the CBCB – Czech Banking Credit Bureau and LLCB – Leasing & Loan Credit Bureau.
 
Profile of CBCB – Czech Banking Credit Bureau, a.s.
 
CBCB – Czech Banking Credit Bureau, shareholding company, has been operating the Banking Client Information Register (Bankovní registr klientských informací, BRKI) for almost four years. Its shareholders are five founding banks (Ceská sporitelna, a.s., Ceskoslovenská obchodní banka, a.s., GE Money Bank, a.s., HVB Bank Czech Republic, a.s., and Komercní banka, a.s.). Through the Banking Register, Czech banks and building savings banks exchange information as concerns the credibility and trustworthiness of their clients.

FONT size=1>Current users of the Banking Client Information Register: Ceská sporitelna, a.s., Ceskoslovenská obchodní banka, a.s., GE Money Bank, a.s., HVB Bank Czech Republic, a.s., Komercní banka, a.s., Živnostenská banka, a.s., Raiffeisenbank a.s., eBanka, a.s., Hypotecní banka, a.s., Citibank, a.s., Ceskomoravská stavební sporitelna, a.s., Stavební sporitelna Ceské sporitelny, a.s., Wüstenrot – stavební sporitelna, a.s., BAWAG Bank CZ, a.s., Wüstenrot hypotecní banka, a.s., Raiffeisen stavební sporitelna, a.s., HYPO stavební sporitelna, a.s., Modrá pyramida stavební sporitelna, a.s., and Volksbank CZ, a.s.
 
For more information, please go to www.cbcb.cz.

Profile of LLCB – Leasing & Loan Credit Bureau, z.s.p.o.
The company LLCB – Leasing & Loan Credit Bureau, z.s.p.o. (LLCB) has been operating the Non-Banking Client Information Register (Nebankovní registr klientských informací, NRKI) since July 2005. The founders of the Non-Banking Register are the following eight companies, active in the Czech Republic in the area of leasing and installment sales: CSOB Leasing, a.s., GE Money Auto, a.s., GE Money Multiservis, a.s., CAC LEASING, a.s., CCB Finance, a.s., ŠkoFIN s.r.o., Leasing Ceské sporitelny, a.s., and Autoleasing, a.s. The Non-Banking Register works on the same principle as the Banking Register and it records leasing and installment operations of physical persons and entrepreneurs as well as legal entities.
Current users of the Non-Banking Client Information Register:
CSOB Leasing, a.s., GE Money Auto, a.s., GE Money Multiservis, a.s., CAC LEASING, a.s., CCB Finance, a.s., ŠkoFIN s.r.o., Leasing Ceské sporitelny, a.s., Autoleasing, a.s., Renault Leasing CZ s.r.o., and D.S. Leasing, a.s.

For more information, please go to www.llcb.cz.

Profile of CCB - Czech Credit Bureau, a.s.
CCB - Czech Credit Bureau, shareholding company, was established in November 2000. Its founders were the company Kilcullen Kapital Partners and the two leading system providers in the area of credit reporting - CRIF and TransUnion (at present, CCB is a 100 % subsidiary company of CRIF). The CCB's main goal was to establish a credit register in the Czech Republic which would cover all relevant segments of the Czech market. The CCB's sphere of activity has gradually broadened and, today, includes the applications of modern decisive-making tools in the framework of both the financial and public sector. CCB provides wide scale of financial products and services - focused on the evaluation of clients' credibility, the risk control and the use of market opportunities - to banks and leasing and installment companies as well as other companies and the state administration. In Slovakia, CCB operates via its subsidiary company, SCB - Slovak Credit Bureau, based in Bratislava and analogue to the Czech credit register.
For more information, please go to www.creditbureau.cz.

Profile of CRIF S.p.A.

The company CRIF S.p.A., established in Bologna, Italy, in 1988, is an international group specializing in the development and management of information credit systems and decision-making supporting systems focused on credit markets. CRIF offers complete packages of information, scoring models, management solutions, software, consultations and global systems of business information intended for banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, telecommunication and other business companies with the aim to help these institutions broaden and control their entrepreneurship and credit activities. The value-added systems and services of CRIF have been used globally for strategic planning, acquisitions, and portfolio and credit management.
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