Dun and Bradstreet fully licensed as 3rd Credit Reference Bureau


March 28th, 2012

Credit Referencing Company, Dun and Bradstreet, D & B has finally received its full operational license from the Bank of Ghana. The company therefore joins the pioneer bureau, XDS Data and the second, Hudson Price Data Solutions as the 3rd credit Reference Bureau in the country.

Country Director, Evans Sarpong confirmed to Joy Business, their full operational licence was granted last Friday after meeting all the requirements by the Central Bank.

“We have the entire infrastructure and data centre in place. The delay basically had to do with some information the Bank of Ghana needed from us for which we provided. So now that we have the license, we are going to officially launch our operations anytime soon. From today we’re going start engaging the banks and obviously start collating data within the next couple of months.”

A credit bureau provides information on the credit repayment trends of individuals and companies. This allows financial institutions to make inquiries on a consumer or commercial entity before approving any form of credit or deciding on whether to sustain the credit granted. Credit bureaus aggregate information among participating financial institutions to provide the credit decision-maker with a more complete risk profile to enhance their risk mitigation capabilities, he noted.

Dun and Bradstreet was granted a provisional license last year and planned to launch its operations before the end of the year. Mr. Sarpong however says they are however unfazed by any negative implications of the apparent delay.

“We appreciate that we coming on board at this time may give our competitors a bit of an edge but we believe that we have what it takes to add value to this credit bureau business in Ghana with our reputation as one of the major international credit bureau operators. So we’re not perturbed by having our competitors already taking the lead because we know what we’re bring on board” he added.

Credit bureaus will provide financial institutions with a better risk management tool and the bank customers will be better evaluated on their credit worthiness. From the experience of credit bureaus in other countries, it was found that over time, borrowers stand to benefit from faster credit applications processing, faster disbursement of loans, fairer assessment and better adjusted quantum according to their more informed assessments..

“D&B is pleased to launch business operations in Ghana and will work on creating a sustainable financial infrastructure in Ghana. Our experience with government and private credit bureaus across the world has facilitated us in building this robust bureau for Ghana”. D&B”s Executive Vice President, Miguel Llenas, also said.