The Treasury has set in motion plans to enact a law that will see defaulters of utility bills such as water, electricity and telephone blacklisted by banks. Says The Business Daily. The new regulations will be part of the credit information sharing law that has been used to bar loan defaulters from accessing bank loans.
The Ministry of Finance said in a notice published on Friday that it was looking for a consultant to help draft changes to the existing rules to include non-bank credit providers into the credit information sharing system.
The statement read, in part, “The scope of the work entails reviewing the credit information sharing (CIS) policy governing various non-bank credit providers and develop regulations to govern CIS for non-banks.”
Speaking to The Business Daily Chief Executive of Metropol East Africa, Sam Omukoko, said “It means that credit access becomes easier and faster and secondly consumers can now negotiate with banks. What has been happening is that the only information we have been getting has been limited to banks.”
Commercial banks were initially required to report any loan defaulters to the two existing credit information bureaus in the country, but the law was this year changed to require banks to share positive information so that consumers have the benefit of good repayment records being included in their credit reports.
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