All the wholly state-owned commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks, all branches and operations offices of the People's Bank of China, the central sub-branches of the capital cities of all the provinces, and the Central Sub-branches in Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen:
The Interim Measures for the Administration of the Basic Database on Individual Credit Information (promulgated by Order No. 3 [2005] of the People's Bank of China, hereinafter referred to as the Measures) have been implemented as of October 1, 2005. Recently, when conducting the selective examination of commercial banks' contracts for individual loans, the People's Bank of China has found that the following problems still exist in obtaining the authorization to inquiry about the individual credit reports:
I. Some commercial banks fail to obtain a written authorization to inquiry about the individual credit reports as prescribed in Article 13 of the Measures.
II. Some commercial banks fail to strictly limit the authorization to inquiry about the individual credit reports to the purposes as prescribed in Article 12 of the Measures.
III. The Measures do not clearly require a commercial bank to obtain the authorization to submit the individual credit information to the basic database on individual credit information, and some commercial banks have cautiously added an article of authorization in the contract or the letter of authorization, but have not clearly stated the submission thereof to the basic database of individual credit information of the People's Bank of China, which may result in the violation of Article 7 of the Measures.
Regarding the above-mentioned problems and in order to regulate the forms and contents for commercial banks to obtain the authorization to inquiry about the individual credit reports, we hereby circulate a notice on the relevant requests as follows, and please implement them accordingly.
I. Any commercial bank that has not obtained the authorization to inquiry about the individual credit reports shall, in light of the requirements as set down in the Measures, immediately add an article of authorization or a letter of authorization in the application form for loans, credit cards, quasi-credit cards and guaranty, so as to obtain the authorization to inquiry about the individual credit reports.
II. Each commercial bank shall, in the relevant article of credit investigation, normatively use the name of “basic database of individual credit information of the People's Bank of China”, and shall not use such unclearly directed and easily confused names as “the relevant institution for credit investigation” or “the system for credit investigation”.
III. Each commercial bank shall, in the relevant article of credit investigation, clarify that the uses for inquiry about individual credit reports are limited to the circumstances as prescribed in Article 12 of the Measures and shall not use ambiguous words to obtain the inquiry authorization other than those as prescribed in the Measures.
IV. Any commercial bank that needs to obtain the authorization to submit the information shall, in the contract or the letter of authorization, clearly state that the individual credit information shall be submitted to the basic database of individual credit information of the People's Bank of China, and shall not provide individual credit information to the basic database of individual credit information that is established without approval of the People's Bank of China or in any disguised form.
V. Each branch of the People's Bank of China shall, upon receipt of this Notice, immediately forward it to the urban commercial banks, rural commercial banks, urban credit cooperatives and rural credit cooperatives under its own jurisdiction for the implementation thereof.
The General Administration Department of the People's Bank of China
November 17, 2005
