A Credit Bureau is too important to development to be tainted by ineptitude

May 22, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

I regretfully write to state that the illustrious Credit Bureau of Guyana, licensed to operate in Guyana since 2013 has now fallen into a defunct state.
A credit bureau is an organisation that collects credit information from lenders and other entities on a consumer, studies it, and uses it to create comprehensive credit reports and other value added services.
Credit Bureaus are critical elements of a country’s financial infrastructure. They increase access to credit; they support responsible lending and reduce credit losses; and they strengthen banking supervision in monitoring systemic risk.
However, this Credit Bureau seems to be neglecting their responsibility. I visited the institution to obtain a credit report on myself to take to a moneylender to obtain a loan to pay for a land allocation, which I have to clear within six months. The area that the land is currently located on is a swamp and won’t be developed for another year, but it somehow costs 2.5M.
Now the Bank with which I have credit facilities, for the past 3 years has opined that they don’t loan money to buy land unless a transport can be issued, in which case it takes the government just about a year, so they won’t lend. This has forced me to take my request to a private moneylender who has requested I present a credit report to facilitate the transaction. Now if I don’t pay for this land within six months, the allocation will be rescinded, so urgency is key.
The Credit Bureau informed me that I have no credit score despite starting my business in 2014/2015 with a loan of $500,000 from IPED, which I cleared within six months. After this, I obtained another loan from IPED for $1.5M and a hire purchase from BM Soat for $2.5M in 2015, which was subsequently bought over by IPED in 2016. After servicing these loans for some time, I transferred all of my credit to Republic Bank Limited in October 2016 in order to benefit from a reduced interest rate offered through the Small Business Bureau for a loan of $2.8M. This loan was paid well until June 2017, when I refinanced for another $500,000, to do some expansion and has been paid down to about $1.5M to date.
I also have a credit facility with Unicomer Guyana Inc., which I initiated in February 2018 for approximately $900,000 which is currently down to $210,000 and will be cleared in 3 months. Multi-million dollars, credit facilities and personal spending have enabled me to have a business with assets worth $6M and home furnishings worth $2M, with a current indebtedness of about $1.7M, after starting out with nothing in 2014.
I’m certain that anyone reading this would get the impression that I have an excellent credit score to be able to obtain that many loans and to have paid them off and obtained new ones, which have also been reduced significantly due to the good performance of my business and goodwill. But according to the Credit Bureau, I still owe IPED $200,000. There is no data about the completion of my loans at IPED, nothing from my recent credit at RBL and nothing from Unicomer, nothing that is accurate, correct or up-to-date.
This is appalling and preposterous. This institute, which operates at a luxurious building located on prime real estate in Central Georgetown, established six years ago has no current data on me. After some probing, I was told that the various credit institutions have not been submitting the required data for the past few years. When asked why haven’t the Credit Bureau been requesting the information, I was told that the Credit institutions are required to submit them on a monthly basis and they wouldn’t know if any information was not submitted unless an individual like myself files a complaint.
It seems to me that the Credit Bureau isn’t doing its work. They are not maintaining the vast and expansive database they’re supposed to be maintaining on all Guyanese residents in order to provide the timely reports they were established to provide. They seem to be just sitting and waiting for a request to come in, after which they go in search of the required information.
Now mind you, I put this to the test too. After receiving my outdated credit report and left the office, the receptionist called and indicated to me that both IPED and RBL were contacted and informed them that the respective loan contracts were closed and that my credit rating is still zero or non-existent.
The vapid explanation for this is that you need to have current credit facilities in order to have a credit rating. How irresponsible! First of all, I do have current credit facilities that are well serviced so this should not have been said to me (inaccurate information – another area of ineptitude highlighted). Second of all, even if I didn’t have any current credit facilities, then the past history of good loan servicing should serve to render a good credit rating for me. One should not need to have a current credit facility to have a credit rating! Factors such as job stability, asset accumulation, income level, and most significantly past credit facilities should contribute to someone’s credit rating. “YOU NEED TO HAVE A CURRENT CREDIT FACILITY!” What utter nonsense!
I’m asking that these issues be rectified immediately. I will be returning next week to the Credit Bureau for an accurate and up-to-date credit report. A Credit Bureau is too important to the development of a country’s economy and individuals’ lives to be tainted by such ineptitude. Who knows how many other persons will have to go through this when they need a credit report. It’s like we’re back to where we were when no fancy and expensive credit bureau existed.

Frustrated Loan Seeker

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