Inadequate data remains a barrier for businesses, especially small enterprises, to secure loans needed to start or expand their operations. CIBI, a private credit bureau, highlighted recent improvements in data submission compliance at its CIBI Impact 2025 conference.
“As of July 2025, the CIC database has around 66 million unique individuals and more than 400 million in trade lines,” said Harley Chan, chief analytics officer of CIBI. “The number of unique customers has grown at a steady pace of around 25% to 30% annually over the past five years, while trade lines have increased more than fivefold over the same period.”
Chan credited the growth to the combined efforts of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Credit Information Corp. (CIC) in advancing financial inclusion. He added that the expansion is also driven by the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market and personal loans. CIBI aims to use structured data to help financial service institutions identify creditworthy customers in segments that have often been overlooked.
“These numbers show that post-consumer behavior has shifted toward frequent, more complex purchases,” Chan said. “You see this every time you check out from your favorite store or online shopping platform, there is always a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ option at checkout.”
He added that online lending platforms now offer cash in as little as five minutes, with repayment schedules that can be set daily, weekly, or monthly.
“Our fintech partners have essentially digitized what used to be traditional financing,” he said. “I understand that, for our banking partners, this segment has often been viewed as high risk, and some completely avoid it.”
CIBI reported that delinquency rates in this market segment remain in double digits. However, Chan said this data also sheds light on customer behavior. While the non-performing loan rate may be 20%, the remaining 80% are good customers who were previously untapped because the entire segment was avoided.
“With advanced tier access through the CIC, it is now possible to identify these customers in greater detail instead of excluding the whole segment,” said Gabby Lopez, head of Business Development and Delivery at CIBI.
To expand client access to data from financial institutions, CIBI has invested $5 million to secure Advanced Tier accreditation.
“Advanced tier clients can access higher hit rates, better data quality, and opportunities for new products such as attributes and triggers,” Lopez said. “More importantly, they will only pay for the matches and hits they receive.”
The service supports portfolio segmentation, risk management, and growth planning, with over 1,300 submitting entities contributing nearly 400 million trade lines. CIBI also offers additional solutions for credit decision-making, working with FICO for advanced risk scoring.
“This enables a clearer view of a customer’s full behavior and total exposure,” Lopez said. “To further demonstrate the value of voluntary versus law-mandated contributions, the advanced tier allows for better portfolio segmentation.”
Source: backendnews.net
