KUALA LUMPUR (July 3, 2007): Bank Negara is able to provide finance institutions the financial records of individuals, and CTOS (Credit Tip-Off Service) Sdn Bhd should play the role of assisting the central bank.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the credit information provider can prepare updated information for Bank Negara and people will have the confidence to use and benefit from the service.
”If it (CTOS) is left alone and uncontrolled, we will hear a lot of complaints about insufficient and incorrect information. That means it is not providing a good service,” he told reporters after launching the 2007 Malaysia International Commodity Conference and Showcase here today.
Asked about people having problems to secure loans because of outdated information provided by CTOS, Abdullah said the provider must get the updated information for its clients because people may be victimised owing to outdated information.
Last week, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk M. Kayveas blamed CTOS for not providing updated information.
He challenged it to prove that it had obtained the information in its database legally and alleged that there was widespread ‘blacklisting’ by it.
However, CTOS chief executive officer Chung Tze Keong said the provider does not have the power to blacklist anyone and it is just an electronic archive that provides information on a company or individual that had appeared in the public domain.
Meanwhile, banking institutions said that they do not depend solely on CTOS’s information to grant or reject loan applications.
Association of Banks chairman Datuk Seri Hamidy Hafiz said: “CTOS is purely used as reference and not as credit decision.”
He said banks also used the central bank’s central credit reference information system to identify loan obligations of applicants and the applicants are always asked to verify and clarify the information the banks had obtained.
