PBOC slaps $4 fees on credit information

Customers checking their credit reports at branches of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) will be charged 25 yuan ($4) from June 3 for every query that goes beyond the limit of two free queries per year, said the bank.

Those who check their reports on the Internet will not be charged as the online credit information system established by the PBOC is still on trial basis in 18 provinces and cities. The system will not cover the entire nation until October.

It has collected credit information of more than 840 million individuals as well as more than 19 million companies and organizations by the end of April. Average daily queries reach about one million for individual credit reports and more than 300,000 for company credit reports.

Most of the credit information comes from commercial banks whereas many small lending institutions have not been included in the system. Only 255 micro loan companies have been connected to the company credit information system and 156 to the individual credit information system by the end of April.

Many micro loan companies do not report credit information of their clients to the central bank for fear of losing their customers. In order to have access to individual credit reports while not providing their own clients' information, these companies take the borrowers to branches of the central bank and tell them to check their credit reports, said Wang Xiaolei, deputy director of the Credit Reference Center of the PBOC.

"By requiring payment for multiple queries, we hope that small financial institutions, driven by their demands to seek credit information, will report their clients' information to the central bank. Therefore, we will be able to maintain long-term healthy development of the credit information system," Wang said.

She noted that only a small proportion of people will be affected by the fee collection.

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