Central Credit Reference Information System of Malaysia

Central Credit Reference Information System

There was a story in The Star telling that an applicant who changed her mind and never collected the credit card. However, RM5 was debited into the account. Because the card was neither collected nor used, it may be presumed that no statements were sent.

As often happens, a surprise awaited the individual concerned when her application for a housing loan at another bank was rejected because she had been “blacklisted” on account of the outstanding debt of RM5 that had been reported to the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS).

According to the article, Credit Worthiness, there is no such thing in law as a blacklist described or defined anywhere or in any document. It is a word that has come to refer to arrangements made by individuals, groups, or even institutions to create an “alert” system.

However, through the ignorance of some of the officers of lending institutions or institutions granting credit, and lack of appreciation of the role of such an alert system, its usefulness is not really appreciated and instead results in inconvenience. The purpose of such a list is not to condemn an individual just because his or her name is on it.

Its real purpose is to alert the organization to which a loan or other application is made as to some relevant aspects of the individual or organization’s past dealings with a view to a possible critical examination. The existence of such a list is to assist in the process of credit evaluation. This can only be done by asking the person concerned for an explanation with regard to the nature of the list.

The individual is put through unnecessary inconvenience for which there is no real remedy. This is because the repository of the information will merely claim to store and making the available date. The lending institution will say that at that stage, there is no contractual relationship that can be the basis of wrongdoing.

The writer, Bhag Singh, recommends that given such a scenario, the welfare of the individual can only be protected by having institutions with better-trained officers and regulatory bodies that can exercise greater vigilance to safeguard the interest of the public.

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