Borrower’s consent not required for credit information sharing by banks. RBI issues the Master Direction – Reserve Bank of India (Credit Information Reporting) Directions, 2025
The Reserve Bank of India (the RBI) has issued the Master Direction – Reserve Bank of India (Credit Information Reporting) Directions, 2025 (CICRA).
These directions aim to establish a standardised framework for reporting and dissemination of credit information; safeguard the confidentiality and security of sensitive credit data; provide mechanisms for consumers to access their credit information and grievance redressal on matters related to credit information reporting.
As per the directions, all Credit Institutions (CIs) i.e. Banks and Financial Institutions shall submit data on credit information of its borrowers (including historical data) to all CICs regularly on a fortnightly basis. There are currently four Credit Information Companies (CIC) registered with RBI, i.e. 1. CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services Private Limited 2. Equifax Credit Information Services Private Limited, 3. Experian Credit Information Company of India Private Limited and 4. TransUnion CIBIL Limited
The CIs shall ensure that the records submitted to CICs are updated regularly and that no instances of repayment, including that of the last instalment, are left unreported. The CICRA provides statutory backing for sharing of credit information by CIs with CICs subject to conditions stipulated therein. Therefore, with CICRA coming into force, the “consent clause” has become redundant and hence consent of the borrower prescribed need not be insisted upon by banks.
Credit Information Dissemination – It has been provided that CICs shall standardise the credit information report (CIR) terminology and also have some mandatory key fields. This would facilitate comparison between CIRs received from two or more CICs by the users. The CICs shall provide a single credit information report (CIR) for one borrower, even if the firm/ person has more than one address, by utilising a unique identification number such as PAN number, Voter ID number, Passport number, Driving License number, etc., provided by the CI. The CICs shall capture details of co-borrowers and guarantors, wherever applicable, in the CIR. This would facilitate deciding on the extent of exposure a CI can consider on an entity. The CIR shall give details of the loans availed by the customers in their capacity as borrower/co-borrower/guarantor. Information relating to loans declined previously to customers shall not be reported by CICs. CICs shall put in place a robust due diligence and control mechanism while sharing credit information of an individual based on his/her consent with entities which are not specified users, by entering into agreement with such entities.
Correction of Credit Information Report – The CIs as well as the CICs shall have arrangements to receive customer requests for rectification of data in CIRs. All erroneous data shall be corrected at the source by the CI that originally submitted the data. The CIC shall not change borrower data unless the CI submitting the data has rectified it at the source to obviate the risk of updated data being overwritten by erroneous data in the next submission cycle by the CI.
Use of credit information reports in credit appraisal – Banks etc. shall include in their loan policies/ credit appraisal processes, suitable provisions for obtaining CIRs from one or more CICs so that the credit decisions are based on credit information available in the system.
The directions also provide forming a Technical Working Group (TWG) to institutionalize a continuing mechanism for reviewing and making changes where necessary in the data formats. Measures have been prescribed to strengthen and improve the efficacy of the grievance redress mechanism and customer service provided by the CIs and CICs.
Read RBI CICRA 2025 Click Here >>
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