Cases of providing inaccurate Credit Information Reports by CIBIL are reported to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 (CIC Act), under which CIBIL functions, has a provision for alterations/corrections or updation of credit information on borrower/client’s request. The prescribed procedures are followed by Credit Information Companies for updation of the information on such request.

However, RBI has no specific information regarding the sale of credit information for profit-making. No credit information is disclosed to any person other than its specified user and privacy principles are provided for collection, preservation, secrecy, sharing and usage of credit information etc. No such information is generated by the Data Reporting System of RBI.

Section 17 of the CIC Act provides for collection (from members) and furnishing (to specified users) of credit information by credit information companies. The CIC Act provides statutory backing for sharing of credit information by Credit Institutions with credit information companies subject to conditions stipulated therein. Therefore, with CIC Act coming into force, the “consent clause” required from borrowers has become redundant.

This was stated by Shri Namo Narain Meena, MoS in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

Credit information sharing: CIC Act governs collection and furnishing, limiting disclosure to specified users and enabling corrections. The Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 requires credit information companies to follow prescribed procedures for alteration, correction and updation of borrower data on request, and provides statutory backing for collection of information from members and furnishing to specified users; disclosure is limited to specified users and privacy principles govern collection, preservation, secrecy, sharing and usage, rendering a separate borrower consent clause redundant.