Credit history bureaus may double access to getting loans: economy and commerce vice minister

The credit history bureaus may double the access to getting loans, says the Economy and Trade vice minister,Tudor Copaci. The official told a seminar on this matter on Friday that sustainable economic development was impossible without informational transparency. Credit history bureaus work in most of the countries, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Several years ago I called on a foreign bank wanting some information about a potential client. In several minutes they told me who that client was, which his activities were and which the loan limit at that bank was. I would like our banks or other financial entities to take a decision so quickly, too, when the question is about disbursing a loan,” Victor Cibotaru, the first deputy governor of the National Bank said at the seminar “Credit history bureaus: perspectives and opportunities.” Mihai Cibotaru, the chairman of the Financial Market National Commission, said the Law on credit history bureaus aims at creating conditions to process, store and present information about the debtors observing the loan terms. He said his commission started to develop normative acts to implement this law. Iurie Mihalache, the founder of the only credit history office in Moldova so far, thinks the Moldovan market will not allow to set up too many bureaus, although the law does not contain any restrictions. “It took us 4 years to start working and we don't even think of gaining profits from the investment we made. Much work needs to be done, to insure the safety of the information. You need to invest at least 2 million euros,” Mihalache said. The law on the credit history bureaus was adopted in May and published in Monitorul Oficial on July 29. The law will enter force on March 1, 2009.