Creditinfo Georgia: A decade of great teamwork, entrepreneurship and vision

Creditinfo Georgia, the only active Credit Bureau in Georgia, was established in February 2005 and is now celebrating 10 years of successful business growth. A celebration for more than 100 customers, shareholders and partners was held at the Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi, Georgia.

AIETI KUKAVA decade ago, Mr. Aieti Kukurava, General Manager of NCIB and CEO of JSC Alliance Group Holding (AGH) recognised the need and the significant benefits of establishing a credit bureau in Georgia. After looking for a suitable partner, Mr. Kukava eventually met Reynir Grétarsson of Creditinfo Group hf, together they brought together each of the current shareholders and helped create the successful and continued growing business it is today, through teamwork, entrepreneurship and vision.

Stakeholders of the credit bureau include Creditinfo International GmbH, TBC Bank, Bank of Georgia, Procredit Bank, Bank Republic (Societe Generale Group) and National Credit Information Bureau Ltd. (NCIB).

paul-2Speeches were given by Alexander Gomiashvili, CEO Creditinfo Georgia and Paul Randall, Chairman of Creditinfo Georgia. Mr. Randall stated that “Creditinfo Georgia has gone from strength to strength over the last decade, making it easier for people to get car loans, mobile phone contracts, mortgages and other forms of credit and increasing financial inclusion. Prior to Creditinfo Georgia, it could take up to 3 weeks to get a decision, where as decisions on credit are now made much quicker, even instantly on line.”

Creditinfo Georgia specialises in providing efficient decision making tools, as well as access to credit information databases essential to the decision making processes of banks, leasing companies and other organisations who lend money, provide services and goods. Companies and organisations with a legitimate interest, utilise our on-line services to retrieve information from our databases, which include highly predictive indicators, to improve their credit risk management procedures. No software installation is required as the databases are accessible on the Internet any time of day, any where in the world.

sandro-1Mr. Gomiasvhili advised “We are really pleased to be able to invite our valued customers to share in this celebration. More so, that our clients have identified through their own in-depth analysis that one of the critical components of high quality credit assessment in Georgia are the services and products which are provided by Creditinfo Georgia, namely credit reports and scores. We are fully committed to maintaining that trust and recognition from our clients. We are also looking forward to the next decade and developing many more innovative products. Our next big expansion in the coming years will be individuals having on-line access to their credit history through MyCreditinfo.”

Creditinfo Georgia enable their clients to understand the risk of individuals or businesses that are requesting credit. Not only are these tools used when assessing credit, but also for regular checks of the customer’s credit worthiness, in order that, outstanding loans and credit card agreements can be assessed before any serious repayment problems occur. With customers ranging from Banks, Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), Leasing companies, Insurance and many more, the client list continues to grow, as do the number of contracts held by the company. With just 9,000 contracts in 2006 this number now stands today in excess of 8.1 million records.

Evaluating credit bureau data is an integral part of the SME and consumer lending process. With the continued increasing availability of credit in Georgia in the last few years, financial institutions need to ensure that above all, those customers it is lending to, are of good credit risk. High quality credit risk management assessment is of equal key importance, for both the customers, in order that they are dealt with in a responsible manner, and for the lenders, to have good quality portfolios.