Kenya credit information sharing initiative
Credit information sharing (CIS) is a risk management tool designed to assist in making lending decisions. It is a mechanism through which banks and other financial institutions may justifiably divulge information about their customers without breaching the banker’s duty of confidentiality, which is one of the key tenets of the banker customer relationship.
- The Banking (Credit Reference Bureau) Regulations 2008 were adopted
- To provide a framework for the governance of licensing, operation and supervision of Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs) by the Central Bank of Kenya. The CIS initiative in Kenya is, however, threatened by the risk of litigation arising from information shared by lending institutions, particularly in cases where adverse reports have led to decisions unfavourable to a customer seeking credit facilities, such as denial of the facilities sought. Left unchecked, the result could be the reversal of gains made towards addressing the challenge of the non-performing loans portfolio that led to the collapse of financial institutions in the 1980s and 1990s in Kenya.
