Some say there is never too much information to consider when lending money to someone. India’s consumer credit bureau (CIBIL) is trying to better evaluate a consumer’s creditworthiness by looking into more data beyond traditional loan and credit card debit histories. Currently, it is trying to persuade mobile network operators to share data about their post-paid mobile phone users.
It has already launched a pilot initiative with Vodafone’s post-paid customers and is in talks with the country’s largest Telco by customers, Bharti Airtel, for a similar project. It is also learnt to have approached other leading telcos for tie-ups.
Though CIBIL is still expanding its database to cover the majority of India’s consumers, it believes this move will help its clients significantly in serving some of the most promising customers in the market today.
Only 5% or about 45 million of the 900 million mobile connections in the country have a post-paid connection, but this represents the high-end customer base in the nation. The country also has about 50 million and 14 million landline and broadband customers, respectively.
Once the tie-ups with telcos are in place, Banks such as ICICI, HDFC, SBI and others may see an individual’s phone bill payment history to deny or approve a car, credit card or housing loan.
Read more about the original story here: http://articles.economictimes.indiat…rmation-bureau
