Sunday, 11th November 2011

Crib – A pillar of financial stability

Today, the Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka as an information service provider to the credit market provides information in the form of credit reports to lenders with the objective of helping them to maintain a healthy credit portfolio by making informed lending decisions. CRIB is empowered to collect credit data from its shareholder member (lending) institutions on all types of advances/loans and disseminate back to them only on request. Credit information can only be perused by authorized users for permissible purposes as stipulated by the Act.

Fostering the Development of information sharing in emerging markets is one of the fastest and most successful ways to facilitate the extension of Credit to previously underserved segments of the population, specially the Micro/small businesses and low income consumers.

As financial intermediaries move from large corporate lending to retail and SME lending the adequacy of the financial infrastructure becomes an essential pre requisite for successful growth.Research has revealed that a Credit Bureau is critical to the expansion of Credit in an economy.

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Wednesday, 6th April 2011

CRIB develops movable assets registry

Locally developed software saves US$ 300,000

The Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka (CRIB) has embarked on a challenging task to implement an industry accepted state-of-the-art Secured Transaction Registry (STR).

The STR is also called the movable assets registry for the benefit of SMEs in particular and the country and economy, Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka (CRIB) General Manager, Gamini Karunaratne told Daily News Business. He said the key is to facilitate rapid repossession and recovery by the creditor while offering necessary protection to the debtor.

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Thursday, 2nd June 2011

Movable properties as collateral for credit facilities

Banks have been accepting movable properties as securities and continue to do so and it is not a new phenomenon.

There have been several news items pertaining to the acceptance of movable assets as security by banks to secure loan facilities which relate primarily to an impending Gazette notification which contends will compel the banks to accept movables as collateral.

However, there appears to be some misconception on this subject as there is an impression that banks hitherto have not been accepting movable assets as collateral. As a person with substantial exposure in this area of banking, I wish to clarify the position for the benefit of those interested.

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Sunday, 12th June 2011

Sri Lanka To Modernize Secured Transaction Systems

Access to credit is critical for economic growth and is widely considered as the engine for private sector development.

In emerging market economies more than half of private sector firms have no access to credit or have very limited access. Survey results indicate that their credit applications mostly get rejected due to insufficient collateral or unsuitable collateral.

In many cases business owners do not even bother to apply for loans as they are certain that they could not meet the stringent collateral requirements such as land and real estate often requested by banks and other formal financial sector institutions.

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Thursday, 15th July 2010

Chairman Speech on STR

The CREDIT INFORMATION BUREAU is an important item of a country’s financial sector infrastructure.

The Credit Information Bureau  maintain the credit records of all who have ever availed themselves of a credit facility from a licensed institution which can lend money to the public.  Currently the CRIB maintain a database of 3 million who have ever taken a credit facility. Accordingly the CRIB is a repository of information relating to credit application and repayment records.  The Bureau provides this information for a fee to its members. By providing this information helps its members to make informed decisions quickly and objectively. The credit report would only show the factual credit data available with CRIB and does not provide any opinion nor indicate or comment whether credit should or should not be granted.

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Friday, 24th June 2011

Training Program on the Correct Interpretation of a Credit Report

CRIB is next set to visit Ratnapura, Kurunegala, Badulla, Anuradhapura, N’ Eliya, Batticaloa and Jaffna.

The Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka (CRIB) has since the beginning of this year undertaken a series of Training Programmes to educate the staff handling Credit and Credit related work in Banks, Finance & Leasing Companies on the proper interpretation of information provided in CRIB reports. These educational programmes are conducted by the staff of CRIB in both English and Sinhala language.

Mr. Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka has very kindly permitted the use of the Central Bank Training Centre at Rajagiriya free of charge. Eight sessions in English has been held in the First quarter of this year covering approximately 2000 staff members attached to Colombo offices.

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