From the beginning with only over 20 staff when separated from the Credit Department with the mission of becoming a public service unit under the structure of The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), with the function of collecting, analyzing, providing information, and acting as a focal point for credit information activities, up to now, CIC has made strong development steps, affirming its role as an important pillar of the national financial infrastructure, the number 1 reliable credit information channel in Vietnam, actively contributing to the safe and healthy development of the banking system.
From the first steps…
In order to have information to support the State Bank in policy making and managing the operations of commercial banks, and to support commercial banks in providing information on the "health" of enterprises before granting credit, in 1992, the Governor of the State Bank signed a decision to establish the Risk Prevention Information Department - a department-level unit under the Credit Department with the function of collecting and providing information on finance and outstanding debts of enterprises. This was an important milestone marking the birth of the State Bank's credit information activities. The Department also advised the State Bank's Board of Directors to issue the Regulation on the organization and operation of risk prevention information on July 24, 1993 - the first legal document on credit information activities in the banking industry, accordingly, requiring large commercial banks to form specialized credit information departments and units.
Faced with the need for information to serve the professional activities (credit, risk management, etc.) of Credit Institutions (CIs) and the need for state management of the State Bank to promptly detect and prevent risks for the banking system in the context of the Asian economy after the 1997 Financial Crisis, on February 27, 1999, the Governor of the State Bank decided to establish the Credit Information Center (CIC). Accordingly, the CIC became a public service unit under the apparatus of the State Bank, with the function of collecting, analyzing, providing information, and acting as the focal point for the State Bank's credit information activities.
As the first specialized organization in credit information activities, CIC has advised the Governor to build a mechanism and policy framework for credit information activities in Vietnam. Specifically, CIC has advised the Governor to issue Decision No. 51/2007/QD-NHNN dated December 31, 2007 on promulgating regulations on credit information activities.
From the Government's innovation policy stipulated in Decree 10/2002/ND-CP on the financial regime applicable to revenue-generating public service units, encouraging increased autonomy and self-responsibility for public service providers, encouraging qualified units to switch to autonomy..., CIC proposed to innovate the operating mechanism, boldly built a Project to submit to the Governor to convert to the revenue-generating public service unit model and issued Decision No. 1402/2003/QD-NHNN dated October 29, 2003 on the level of revenue for TTTD services, which is an important basis for the transition to the public service provision mechanism applied for the first time in the banking system.
The breakthrough transformation into a public service unit is a particularly important milestone, deciding the steps and development of CIC to a new, stronger and more successful page. From the position of a state administrative organization with many limitations in operational efficiency and lack of autonomy in both task performance and finance, CIC has innovated its operating methods and style towards providing services to meet market demands.
After 5 years of innovating the operating mechanism and implementing the financial mechanism for revenue-generating public service units, the quality of CIC's operations has been improved in both breadth and depth, the number of products and services provided has grown strongly, reaching an average of over 40%/year, and the quality of services has been increasingly improved. On December 31, 2008, the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam signed Decision No. 3289/QD-NHNN stipulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of CIC and Decision No. 1086/QD-NHNN dated May 8, 2009, granting autonomy and self-responsibility for performing tasks, organizing the apparatus, staffing and finance to CIC. Once again, CIC has made a major change in its operating mechanism, courageously "abandoning the budget", being the first unit in the Industry to implement the autonomy mechanism. The first steps were difficult, but with valuable experiences, solidarity and efforts of the leadership and employees, CIC has made strong and rapid developments.
Go to the National Credit Information Database (NCDB) management point
Circular 03/2013/TT-NHNN dated January 28, 2013 regulating the credit information activities of The State Bank of Vietnam (Circular 03) is an important legal corridor, creating a premise for CIC to develop in the new period.
Currently, the Vietnam National Credit Information Database managed by CIC stores information on borrowers, with the participation of 125 credit institutions, 1,160 People's Credit Funds, 04 official microfinance organizations and 64 voluntary organizations; State management agencies, as well as other organizations outside the banking system. As of the end of June 2024, the National Credit Information Database stores information on more than 56.5 million customers. Data coverage/adult population reached 74.78% (2023). Since 2019, CIC has achieved 8/8 points in the World Bank Group's assessment of credit information depth.
In addition, CIC is also recognized as one of the units that effectively implemented Decision 171/QD-NHNN of the State Bank of Vietnam on the Plan of the Banking Industry to implement Decision No. 06/QD-TTg dated January 6, 2022 of the Prime Minister approving the Project on developing applications of population data, identification and electronic authentication to serve national digital transformation in the period 2022 - 2025, with a vision to 2030 (referred to as Project No. 06). Accordingly, personal customer identification data is standardized and cleaned. Specifically, CIC has reconciled and cleaned over 42 million records and added the "Authenticated" status in CIC's reports for correctly matched customer records, and at the same time completed the construction of a set of documents proposing a level 3 information system security level for the system connecting the National TTTD Database with the National Population Database.
From the results of the reconciliation, CIC is actively coordinating with credit institutions to review and standardize customer data, at the same time CIC can provide products and services with higher quality to serve credit institutions. Other types of data such as outstanding debt, debt status, interest rates, loan purposes, loan guarantees, etc. are also being strengthened to check and control to improve the quality of the National Credit Information Database.
Affirming its role as an important pillar of the national financial infrastructure
Circular No. 15/2023/TT-NHNN issued by the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam on December 5, 2023, regulating the SBV's credit information activities, replacing Circular 03, is a premise for CIC to research and deploy the construction of a core business application system, applying more achievements of the 4.0 technology revolution to activities of collecting, processing, creating and providing information, thereby improving the level of automatic processing of the system, ensuring the provision of information quickly, promptly, accurately and completely, helping to enhance the ability to advise the SBV's Board of Directors, Departments and Bureaus in the process of monetary policy management and ensuring the stability of the banking system.
The consistent orientation of CIC throughout the development process is to strive to build CIC into an advanced, large-scale public credit information agency, in line with the requirements of building a modern central bank in the digital age; linking the development process of CIC with the restructuring process of the Vietnamese banking system; enhancing the position of CIC as the focal point for credit information data of the banking industry, actively contributing to the management activities of the State Bank. Along with that, supporting credit institutions in risk management activities and ensuring fair access to credit for borrowers, contributing to socio-economic development. The Government and the State Bank also set specific goals to further promote the role of CIC in supporting the State Bank and credit institutions to access complete information sources about borrowers, thereby improving access to banking services, towards completing the goal of financial inclusion in Vietnam.
In the coming time, CIC will continue to be the credit data hub of the banking industry, an important and effective information channel for the direction, operation, inspection, supervision and decision-making of the State Bank. At the same time, it will develop direct information services for borrowers, contributing to improving borrowers' access to credit and ensuring the transparency of the credit information system.
New successes and new hopes await CIC ahead. The new age journey is vast with the solidarity, collective efforts, and valuable experience gained through many generations. We believe that CIC will become stronger and stronger, developing to be worthy of its position as an important pillar of the national finance.
