THE Credit Information Corp. (CIC) announced on January 22, it formally forged partnership with the University of the Philippines Public Administration Research and Extension Services Foundation Inc. (UPPAF) as one of the latter’s agency partners for the implementation of its “Regulatory Support Program for National Development” or Respond.
According to the state-run CIC, the UPPAF was awarded a five-year grant to cover the period from April 2019 to April 2024, by the United States Agency for International Development to provide support for the implementation of the Respond project. The project pursues interventions that will enhance market competition, strengthen regulatory capacity and governance, and promote citizen engagement and advocacy.
During the partnership forum held last December 2019, UPPAF Respond’s Chief of Party Enrico L. Basilio shared that the project is “envisioned to enhance competitiveness and ultimately contribute to higher levels of investment and trade, inclusive growth and self-reliance.”
“We hear stories of people who are denied credit because someone may have had a similar name and the transactions are attributed to them, or a person may be denied credit because of a previous transaction or negative action that they have engaged in so they are in a negative list even if they long since fulfilled their obligation,” CIC President and CEO Jaime Casto Jose P. Garchitorena was to have said during the forum.
CIC, the country’s sole public credit registry, has established a solution—the online dispute resolution process, in recognition of the borrower’s rights to dispute any incorrect or inaccurate information on their credit reports obtained through the credit information system. The ODRP is also in response to the prevalence of false financial data in the market.
Garchitorena, likewise, stated the need for the active participation of all stakeholders involved,
“The first step will be instilling among the contributing entities [banks, cooperatives, microfinance institutions and government financial institutions with lending facilities, among others] the necessity to comply and the implications of noncompliance to a regulatory body like the CIC, and then getting the support of all other regulators that co-regulate these entities,” he said. “We have to convince the rest of the bureaucracy to respond properly to this particular matter of online dispute resolution and the correction of credit information for the benefit of Filipinos.”
Per the memorandum of understanding signed by UPPAF and CIC, the former shall provide technical assistance to the latter in the implementation of regulatory programs including dispute resolution.
The two shall collaborate and jointly plan, develop and implement annual work programs on the provided technical assistance that will support the fulfillment of the targets and objectives of the Philippine government, according to Garchitorena.
“In order to realize [this objective] of a strongly rooted, comfortable, and secure life for all Filipinos, the country’s financial ecosystem shall be anchored on a reliable credit registry,” he added.