CREDIT REFERENCE BUREAUS

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CREDIT REFERENCE BUREAU

A CRB (Credit Reference Bureau) is a company that collects data on loans issued by lending institutions, and consequently creates reports (known as credit reports) on a borrowers current and past loans. With this information, a CRB is able to draw out the repayment patterns of each borrower. Lenders will obtain your credit report and use this repayment information to determine if they will issue you with a loan.

In Kenya, we have three CRBs; all licensed for operation and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya namely;

  • CreditInfo CRB.
  • Metropol CRB.
  • Transunion Kenya CRB.

Credit Information Sharing Association of Kenya (CIS Kenya)

The Credit Information Sharing Association of Kenya (CIS Kenya) was set up to institutionalize the National Credit Information Sharing (CIS) Forum. The Forum was created in early 2012 in order to bring together both bank and non-bank credit providers to map the way forward towards implementing full file comprehensive CIS in Kenya. Prior to the formation of CIS Kenya, the implementation of CIS in Kenya was spearheaded by the Kenya Credit Information Sharing Initiative (KCISI), a partnership between Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and Kenya Bankers Association (KBA).
 
CIS Kenya was launched on September 24th 2013 (then referred to as Association of Kenya Credit Providers (AKCP)), and its Governing Council was constituted soon thereafter at its first AGM in November 2013.
 
In Mid-2014, CIS Kenya embarked on a strategic planning exercise to define its five-year focus, from 2015-2019.
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