Credit & Data Bureau (CDB) is a new company that is being launched in Papua New Guinea to store information about Papua New Guinean's and anyone else that borrows money from financial institutions in Papua New Guinea that are customers of this company. The company has a number of different shareholders that include the three main commercial banks in Papua New Guinea (BSP, ANZ, & Westpac), they also have a number of foreign shareholders.
According to the CDB's website their principal business is the operation of a Credit Bureau database, where CBS's clients can access the credit history and identify details of their customers. CDB states that they supply their customers with information from their customers and also their public records.
So what this basically means is that CDB is going to host a online database that sits on a server overseas and is run by a foreign company in a foreign land. Now this company is going to be trusted to hold all the important data information and personal details of Papua New Guinean's. I don't like the idea of a foreign company in a foreign land being in charge of Papua New Guinean's personal data and information.
The other interesting point that came to light is that only a select few financial institutions in Papua New Guinea are shareholders. The rest have not being invited to become shareholders. Yet CDB's is expecting financial institutions that join to give their bad debts data over to CDB's for free. If I was a CEO, Lending Manager, etc for a financial institution in Papua New Guinea. I would not give this data over to CDB for free. The financial gain that CDB stands to make from this is huge. For example to become a client/member of CDB costs K20,000. Then you have licencing fee that you have to pay every year which is another couple of thousand kina. On top of that you have to pay a fee for every search that you make. Which depending on the volume of searches that you make starts at K8. So you can see already that CDB is going to be a cash cow. So why not sell you data to CDB instead of giving it to them for free.
Papua New Guinean's and foreigners who have bad debts a like should be very worried. Because the good thing about CDB is it is going to prevent these people from getting loans from a number of different financial institutions. But there also can be some problems like all systems where there is cases of mistaken identity and people who are good at paying their debts are put on the system as having a bad debt.
I think the concept behind CDB is great. It is working in Fiji where this companies sister company has being run for the last six years. But I feel that all financial institutions in Papua New Guinea should be allowed to become shareholders. At the moment CDB seems to be credit data beureau that it run by a number foreigners in Papua New Guinea. They do have a very respectable long time resident of Papua New Guinea as being their Managing Director (Retired Principal of Ela Murry International School). But it still does not change the fact that this is company that is going to hold Papua New Guinean's financial data and is owned and run by people from overseas. I for one would like to see more Papua New Guinea shareholders in such a Bureau or better yet the Papua New Guinea Government should create its own credit bureau.
According to the CDB's website their principal business is the operation of a Credit Bureau database, where CBS's clients can access the credit history and identify details of their customers. CDB states that they supply their customers with information from their customers and also their public records.
So what this basically means is that CDB is going to host a online database that sits on a server overseas and is run by a foreign company in a foreign land. Now this company is going to be trusted to hold all the important data information and personal details of Papua New Guinean's. I don't like the idea of a foreign company in a foreign land being in charge of Papua New Guinean's personal data and information.
The other interesting point that came to light is that only a select few financial institutions in Papua New Guinea are shareholders. The rest have not being invited to become shareholders. Yet CDB's is expecting financial institutions that join to give their bad debts data over to CDB's for free. If I was a CEO, Lending Manager, etc for a financial institution in Papua New Guinea. I would not give this data over to CDB for free. The financial gain that CDB stands to make from this is huge. For example to become a client/member of CDB costs K20,000. Then you have licencing fee that you have to pay every year which is another couple of thousand kina. On top of that you have to pay a fee for every search that you make. Which depending on the volume of searches that you make starts at K8. So you can see already that CDB is going to be a cash cow. So why not sell you data to CDB instead of giving it to them for free.
Papua New Guinean's and foreigners who have bad debts a like should be very worried. Because the good thing about CDB is it is going to prevent these people from getting loans from a number of different financial institutions. But there also can be some problems like all systems where there is cases of mistaken identity and people who are good at paying their debts are put on the system as having a bad debt.
I think the concept behind CDB is great. It is working in Fiji where this companies sister company has being run for the last six years. But I feel that all financial institutions in Papua New Guinea should be allowed to become shareholders. At the moment CDB seems to be credit data beureau that it run by a number foreigners in Papua New Guinea. They do have a very respectable long time resident of Papua New Guinea as being their Managing Director (Retired Principal of Ela Murry International School). But it still does not change the fact that this is company that is going to hold Papua New Guinean's financial data and is owned and run by people from overseas. I for one would like to see more Papua New Guinea shareholders in such a Bureau or better yet the Papua New Guinea Government should create its own credit bureau.
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