P

efindo Biro Kredit (Pefindo Credit Bureau), the country'€™s first private credit bureau, has launched operations that will provide enhanced information on customers to banks and financial services firms.

Pefindo Biro Kredit president director Ronald T. Andi Kasim said the company had already obtained an operation permit from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) on Dec. 22, 2015, having acquired a principal license in August 2014.

'€œWe'€™ve just received OJK'€™s announcement letter about our operation permit today [Monday] and we hope that this new industry will greatly help banks and multi-finance companies with conduct customer-checking,'€ Ronald said at a press conference on Monday.

Johny Taufik, office administration division head at Pefindo Biro Kredit, said local rating agency Pemeringkat Efek Indonesia (Pefindo) had a 51 percent stake in the company and state-owned pawn shop operator Pegadaian had a 23.6 percent stake.

Sigma Cipta Caraka (Telkomsigma), the data center business arm of state-run telecommunications giant Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), and the Indonesian Financing Firms Association (APPI) both have a 10 percent stake in the company, while Japan'€™s credit rating agency Credit Information Center (CIC) holds the remaining 5.4 percent.

Johny said that shares owned by Telkomsigma and APPI would be diluted in the near future as the OJK and State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Ministry had approved the entry of state-owned pension insurer Taspen as new minority shareholder, while also waiting for approval on state-run credit insurance firm Jamkrindo as the second newcomer.

'€œThe OJK has limited foreign ownership in the private credit bureau at 20 percent, which also applies upwards to the ultimate shareholders of foreign investors,'€ he said.

At present, the company has basic capital of Rp 200 billion (US$14.3 million) and paid-up capital of Rp 85 billion, before the entry of Taspen and Jamkrindo.

The company is adopting a credit-rating information system practiced by Creditinfo, an Iceland-based credit bureau and information services group with operations in 20 countries, Ronald said.

Ronald said the company as a private credit bureau was allowed to collect and enhance various raw data from Bank Indonesia'€™s debtor information system (SID) and customer database in the multi-finance industry, which was required by an OJK'€™s regulation to use services offered by private credit bureaus.

The company could also collect non-loan customer databases owned by the Home Ministry, non-financial companies and public utility operators, such as Telkom and state-run electricity firm PLN and process the information to provide more enhanced data on prospective and existing customers, Ronald said.

Until now, there are at least 80 million debtors in the central bank'€™s SID, while the Home Ministry has about 140 million citizens registered through electronic identity cards (e-KTP).

'€œOur products can only be used by our members, such as banks and multi-finance firms as well as public utility companies, like PLN and Telkom,'€ he said, adding that individuals could also apply for membership in order to subscribe to the company'€™s products and services.

Ronald said the company would apply volume-based systems with some tiers of fees charged to its members, with a maximum price of Rp 12,000 per information inquiry, adding that '€œwe are optimistic that our revenues will be able to cover our costs in the first year.'€

'€œThe services offered by the private credit bureau will help banks and finance companies to increase efficiency and reduce non-performing loans [NPL], which in turn will help decrease interest rates,'€ he said.