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Credit bureau questions economic law
Posted On 29 Nov 2017
Ecuadornews:
The proposal maintains that the Superintendency of Banks handle the credit information. While the private sector opposes, the authorities defend it. Public or private monopoly? This is one of the questions surrounding the handling of credit information that the law proposes for economic reactivation.
The proposal is that the Superintendency of Banks operate the Registry of Credit Data in order to provide the reference service, that is, the information accessed by financial or commercial entities before granting a credit.
The superintendent of Banks, Christian Cruz, explained yesterday in the National Assembly that the rule aims to guarantee access to credit for all people and, above all, to information.
The provision is supported by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Carlos de la Torre, who weeks ago told this newspaper that the Superintendency of Banks can host such processes and that, in this way, “it would prevent a monopoly from being created. private to handle the credit information “. He assured that the transfer of information does not put at risk the credit histories of the people.
However, Marco Rodríguez, an advisor to Equifax, the only credit bureau that operates in Ecuador, argues instead that, with the passing of information to the Superintendency of Banks, “a public monopoly would be created.” “The Superintendency of Banks is a control and supervision body. With the law, the entity becomes an actor in the credit reference market.”
He added that the original project also establishes a limit ($ 0.15 of the unified basic salary or $ 56) below which no credit can be registered. According to Rodríguez, if the project were approved, 2.8 million credits currently registered would be eliminated, corresponding to 2.4 million subjects. Of those 2.8 million registered loans, 2 million – or 71% – correspond to debts due or paid on time that show good payment behavior. Then the good payers would be affected.
The superintendent denied that interpretation and said that this norm is already in force and has not diminished the credit placement. In the last report prepared by the Economic Regime Commission and which is currently being debated for the second time in the National Assembly, it is specified that the aforementioned exclusion refers to past-due operations.
Before this modification, Cruz responded: “The important thing is to listen to the points of view. Unfortunately, many of the things that were removed were under arguments that were not true. ” Another point that concerns Equifax and that was considered in the commission’s report is that if the bureau delivers its entire database to the Superintendency, its intellectual property rights would be violated.
In addition, Víctor Murillo, director of the Business Center of the United States Chamber of Commerce, also warned on this point in the past days because it would negatively influence the renewal of tariff preferences (GSP) with the United States. He explained that the rules clearly establish that a country that does not respect the intellectual property rights of a US company cannot access the GSP. The credit bureau, whose headquarters are located in Atlanta, recommends that the rules allow the participation of public and private credit entities with the same rules.
Rules
Bureau proposes plurality
- The entity maintains that the Ecuadorian legislation should allow the participation of private and public bureaus, in coexistence under the same rules. According to Marco Rodríguez, before 2012 the participation governed in that way.
- 65 percent of the bill has been amended by the Economic Regime Commission.
- Authorities defend The Minister of Finance and the Superintendent of Banks assure that the credit information will not be affected.
