By Fei Ya (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-30 10:09

China has developed the world's largest credit information database for individuals, a central bank official said yesterday.

The national centralized credit information database, which was set up at the end of 2004 by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), held 570 million personal credit records by the end of June, Su Ning, deputy governor of the PBOC, said yesterday.

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The database has enabled commercial banks to issue loans to individuals based on personal credit history rather than collateral since the beginning of 2006.

"It is now the largest credit information database in the world," Su said.

The Credit Information Index, which monitors credit performance, has risen from 3 percentage points in 2005 to 4 percentage points this year in China, an increase of 1 percentage point. The average Credit Information Index in Asia is 1.9 percent, the deputy governor said.

"An increase of 1 percentage point (on the Credit Information Index) is estimated to drive up gross domestic product by 0.9 percent and the productivity by 0.7 percent," Su said.

Credit records for 12.2 million companies are also housed in the database, of which 5.1 million have borrowed from banks.

The credit information of 23,000 small and medium-sized enterprises that have never received loans has also been added to the database.

"The creation of company and personal credit records not only plays an important role in helping financial institutions to prevent risk, but also provides valuable information for government departments in public affairs management and enforcement of administrative laws. So it helps strengthen credit awareness," said Su.

The deputy governor said the areas from which credit information is collected and for which it is used are growing in number.

"Information such as defaults on insurance premiums, defaults on migrant workers' wages, violation of environment laws and defaults on telecommunications charges is included in the database, and information concerning product quality and tax evasion will also be included down the track," he said.