Need a loan? First check your personal loan score

The Credit Information Bureau India Ltd and TransUnion on Thursday launched a 'personal loan score' to enable lenders to make informed decisions, in the backdrop of rising defaults on unsecured equated monthly installment loans.

Two other products, a home loan repository and a fraud repository, are expected to be launched by the second quarter of the current financial year.

"Consumers will have access to their credit information records from December 2009. Cibil is in the process of putting up the required infrastructure, such as call centres," said Cibil Managing Director Arun Thukral.

He added that the maximum charge permitted by RBI for this is Rs 100.

"The home repository will help in curbing multiple sale of the same property, by allowing buyers to access mortgage details and reduce the cases of fraud in housing," said Thukral.

This central registry will help banks, financial institutions and non-banking finance companies get mortgage details of consumers before issuing loans against property.

As for the fraud repository, it is meant to list the particulars of anyone found to have tried to cheat or hoodwink lenders in any way.

The Personal Loan Score will provide details on the likelihood of customers becoming 91 days delinquent on a personal or consumer loan over the next 12 months. The score will range between 300-900, indicating the levels of default.

"Although banks are going slow on personal loans, 20 per cent of the enquiries are for this segment," said TransUnion General Manager Satish Pillai. He added that the number of enquiries from public sector banks have gone up in the past one year.

Cibil has 135 million borrower accounts in database and 165 customers. The credit bureau has added 30-40 customers in the past year.

"We have 2.7 million commercial accounts and the number is growing fast. The number of SME accounts have seen a rapid increase in recent months," said Cibil Chief Operating Officer Terry McCafferty.

While the Credit Information Company Act allowed Cibil to create a database for telecom and insurance, Thukral said that utility information would also help the industry.

Cibil does not see its market share diluting after the entry of three more players in the next six months. "There is enough space for multiple players. We will definitely have an edge over new ones, because we are the first credit bureau," Thukral said.

According to the Credit Information Company Act, banks will have to share all information with at least one credit bureau.