Vietnam’s credit registry coverage increased to 59.6% in 2020 from 41.8% in 2015, said Do Hoang Phong, director of the Vietnam Credit Information Centre (CIC).

The rate was higher than the average level of the Asia Pacific region and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, Phong noted.

Phong said the country’s credit registry coverage had been continually improved with last year seeing an increase of more than 2.9 million new borrowers against the previous year, bringing the total number of customers in the national credit information data to more than 45.6 million. The numbers were 30% higher than the targets set in the industry’s development project for the 2015-20 period.

CIC has launched a portal connecting borrowers and credit institutions so that borrowers can now easily choose credit packages and register loan needs at the appropriate credit institutions through the online portal. On the borrower connection portal, borrowers are allowed to view their own credit information and credit scores, helping them monitor their credit levels as well as prevent fraud.

Besides enlarging the credit registry coverage, CIC last year also cut the price of its credit information products and services given to credit institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, to help the institutions cut operating costs, enabling them to lower interest rates so as to help borrowers in accessing bank credit.

CIC has this year targeted to increase the credit registry coverage through further expanding the database and promoting the collection of non-traditional information from relevant ministries and branches.

The centre will also strengthen research to enable new technology trends in database construction, information provision and customer support.

However, Nguyen Kim Anh, deputy governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, said the development of the nation’s credit registry coverage must be associated with ensuring cybersecurity and credit information safety to protect legal rights of parties participating in the national credit information system.