Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder said the customers’ personal information at the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) system is secured, and even the central bank cannot delete them from its database.
He was speaking at the launch of the Credit Info rmation Bureau for Microfinance (MF-CBI) in Dhaka on Thursday.
“CIB is a secure system. There is no chance to delete the customer's personal information from the database,” the governor said, adding that Bangladesh Bank also has no power to remove any customer’s data from the system.
Financial Institutions Division Secretary Sheikh Mohammad Salim Ullah, Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) Executive Vice Chairman Md Fashiullah and representatives from non-government organisations (NGOs) registered with the MRA, among others, attended the launching ceremony.
The NGOs urged Bangladesh Bank to form a separate fund for small loans of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) at low interest rates.
The central bank governor assured that the initiative to form a special fund will be taken once the inflation is under control.
Microcredits disbursed mainly by the non-government organisations (NGOs) have revolutionised the country’s economy, the people familiar with the sector said.
But this sector lacks transparency for the scarcity of accurate information about the loan takers and transactions, making it harder to maintain a risk-free lending procedure, they observed.
To remedy the problem, the Bangladesh Bank’s Credit Information Bureau for microfinance (MF-CBI) will start reviewing all the aspects of the NGOs’ microcredit services in the country.
The MRA will provide the data necessary for its operation.
Under a pilot programme, loan information regarding five lakh customers of top 50 microcredit providers’ 464 branches is already compiled in a database, and 14,000 more branches will be included in it soon.
In the second phase, 50 more microfinance institutions with more than 25 branches will be included in the MF-CIB programme.
The MRA has decided to include more than 25,000 branches of 731 micro-finance institutions spread across the country in the CIB database.