The central bank began to prepare for the establishment of the system in 1997. The system had connected all major cities above prefecture level by the end of last year, the bank said.

Companies, institutions and other borrowers except individuals, which conduct credit business with financial institutions, are all required to register their basic credit information in the system, such as their financial situation and whether they have been sued, it said.

Domestic and foreign-funded financial institutions' renminbi and foreign exchange business - including loans and credit certificate - are also required to register with the system.

By the end of May this year, about 4 million borrowers, borrowing a total of 11.2 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion), were recorded in the system.

The system enables banks to know more about borrowers, the central bank said. Figures suggest that financial institutions accessed the system more than 2.7 million times in 2001, an increase of 53 per cent compared with the previous year.

The system helped prevent 9,616 cases of possible risk credit between September 2002 and April 2003.

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