The country’s largest credit records institution is not updating its records on time, according to a complaint by a senior banker. Also, individuals are upset that they are not receiving their credit reports on time

Credit Information Bureau of India Ltd (CIBIL) is falling behind in providing up-to-date services promised to members as well as commercial and consumer borrowers. A major complaint that has been voiced against the country's first credit bureau is that it fails to update its records on a regular basis.

According to a senior manager of Bank of Baroda, the credit bureau takes six weeks or more to even rectify the records. This is a violation of the requirement of the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, according to which credit bureaus must correct/rectify the data within 30 days of receiving it from members.

In an email, CIBIL, said, "Credit Institutions are required to submit their data to CIBIL on a monthly basis. We update our records within one week from the date of receipt of the data from the Credit Institutions. This is a regular and disciplined process and is completed within the stipulated time period."

"If a Credit Institution submits specific request to update CIBIL records, the request is processed within 24 to 48 hours. The same is also confirmed via email to the respective Credit Institution," it added.

Speaking to reporters recently, Arun Thukral, managing director of CIBIL, said, "At CIBIL, our data is refreshed every month. All the information we receive from our members in entered into our database on a monthly basis. In addition, since our job is to just maintain credit history of commercial and consumer borrowers and provide the same to our members, we cannot modify or alter the data. Any change, correction or modification is done by the members themselves."

CIBIL caters to about 300 members, many of them major banks, co-operative banks and non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs). It holds information of around 16 crore loan accounts and about 9.5 crore customers-individuals and businesses. The repository or credit data that is maintained by CIBIL gets refreshed automatically every month with the information received from members.

CIBIL has started providing a credit information report (CIR) to individuals through its website. But since there is no separate mechanism to verify the identity of an individual, it is using postal services to send these reports. It says that the reports are delivered in about a week.

But customers have complained about unprecedented delays and difficulties in obtaining the CIRs. One individual who tried calling the CIBIL helpline was surprised at the response. He says, "I tried calling the helpline number (022-61404300) at about 2pm on Friday, to find the dispatch details and the IVR said that I should call during working hours which are mentioned as 10am to 6pm."

In its reply, the credit bureau said," The CIR request is processed in 10 business days from the date of receipt of request at CIBIL. This is subject to realization of the fee payment and complete and valid documentation. Once CIBIL receives the documents and Fees, the request is processed and copy of the CIR is dispatched to the applicant via speed post."

More complaints against CIBIL are even listed on some sites and blogs. One such complaint on consumercourt.in reads: "I have been struggling to obtain my CIBIL report since one and a half month. I have sent the application form along with the payment of Rs142 by demand draft and my latest bank account statement. But I have received conflicting responses from CIBIL, whenever I have called them on phone or written to them by email. Sometimes they respond saying it will be dispatched in the next 2-3 days, sometimes they ask for a letter from my bank confirming my present address. I have sent them three previous bank statements as well, which contain the same address, but CIBIL says the address in their record is different."

CIBIL, in the email said, "Please remember that CIBIL does not make changes to any information on its own. It is only a custodian of information received from credit institutions. CIBIL is permitted to make changes to credit information only when it is confirmed by the credit institution(s). Consumer can report inaccuracies if any in the CIR via email or letter. We shall check the same with the relevant Credit Institution and will update the consumer as appropriate."