Credit bureaus create consumer credit profiles based on credit information received from credit providers on a monthly basis. The National Credit Regulator regulates and monitors these registered credit bureaus and the quality of their data.
As at June 2009, credit bureaus had records for 17.79 million credit-active consumers:
· The percentage of consumers in good standing was 55.9%, a decrease of 1.7% when compared with quarter ended March 2009 and a decrease of 4.5% when compared with quarter ended June 2008.
· The number of consumers with impaired records continued to increase, to 7.85 million at the quarter ended June 2009. This implies a deterioration in the credit records for 390 000 consumers in comparison to the last quarter and 1.06 million year-on-year, reflecting a further increase in the level of debt-stress. The trend of the consumers with impaired records has been on an increase since June 2007.
· There were 121.46 million enquiries made on consumer credit records during the June 2009 quarter. This was an increase of 23.4% quarter-on-quarter. Of the total enquiries made on consumer records, enquiries from banks and other financial institutions accounted for 39.4%, enquiries from retailers accounted for 14.2% and enquiries from telecommunications providers accounted for 23.7%.
· The number of credit reports issued to consumers increased in the quarter ended June 2009, with 33,662 free credit reports being issued, an increase of 9.8% quarter-on-quarter. A further 5,288 credit reports were issued with charge.
· In the quarter ended June 2009, 7,072 disputes were lodged in relation to the information on consumer credit records. This was a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 15.5% and a year-on-year decrease of 26.8%.