The Creditinfo Chronicle
The Creditinfo Academy – connecting people and sharing best practice
The Creditinfo Academy was established with two primary purposes, firstly as a knowledge centre for the 280 Creditinfo employees worldwide and secondly, for the client base and partners to share information about their organizations and to provide feedback on working with Credit Bureaus and Credit Risk Management Service Providers.
The Creditinfo Academy arranges bi-weekly webinars for its worldwide audience on credit industry related topics and more general business topics, bringing together their senior management team and employees with a number of influential specialists, business experts, practitioners and providers within the Credit Industry. The webinars present an excellent opportunity for all involved to share ideas about the challenges and best practice worldwide.
Reynir Grétarsson, CEO of Creditinfo Group, is a firm believer that “Information is the lifeblood of the modern economy.” He advises, “Creditinfo is pleased to be able to provide a worthwhile and unique learning experience. This is just one of various steps to enhance mutual understanding and best practice within the Credit Industry. The Creditinfo Academy demonstrates how collaboration can work in practice to achieve improvements in the industry by identifying common data issues and sharing knowledge. We address a broad range of topical subjects and will continue to take the initiative in the development of new services and processes in the Credit Bureau industry.”
Amongst a few of the more recent external credit industry speakers are representatives from global influential organizations such as Institute of Financial Literacy (Iceland), The Association of Credit for Central and Eastern Europe s.r.o. (Czech Republic), Royal Bank of Scotland (UK) and Microbilt (USA), who have delivered incisive views on a wide range of subjects and shared information about their actual experiences in the credit industry.
The Creditinfo Academy also kicked off 2014 with an inspirational presentation on “Change Management” from Mr. Paul Gauci, a training and development professional from Malta who lectures regularly at the University of Malta and who this year, also celebrates 34 years as Head of Training & Development at the Bank of Valletta.
Almar Hilmarsson, CEO of Creditinfo International, the holding company for Creditinfo, as well as the centre for know-how and service to subsidiaries and customers, advised, “Through the Creditinfo Academy, our Partnership Programmes and Global Forums, we are able to develop & continually improve Creditinfo’s strategy. Our culture of talented individuals working together on a global basis is the engine that helps drive our client’s success, as such we are committed to developing them further. Equally, the feedback from our customers is paramount, in enabling us to build upon our knowledge base to deliver better results. We work with numerous organizations worldwide and are able to pass on new ideas and lessons learned from those experiences.” Continue reading »
Bank of Guyana support Creditinfo Guyana newly launched SeeRisk International Business Report
Mr. Lawrence Williams, Governor of the Bank of Guyana
On Thursday, March 28, 2014, Creditinfo Guyana formally introduced to Guyana, and the business sector in particular, two new value added products to its existing line of credit reports, where advantage of global opportunities can be taken with greater confidence.
Speaking at the launch, Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Mr. Lawrence Williams (pictured) reiterated the Bank’s support for Creditinfo Guyana and encouraged business entities to utilize the SeeRisk Report which would “provide adequately for informed decision-making, enhance compliance with the AML/CFT* Act, and consequently lend to improved performance and increased assets of the various users”.
He opined that “the undertaking to launch the value added product – SeeRisk Report – to its mainstream business is highly commendable, and moreover shows that Creditinfo is committed to assisting in strengthening the financial sector, making Guyana attractive to foreign investments and providing meaningful information and data for individuals and companies to safely conduct business transactions with their counterparts in other countries.”
The SeeRisk International Business Report offers a powerful decision making mechanism for the facilitation of international business transactions through the provision of financial and credit related information.
It is a comprehensive report that allows for vital and necessary insights to be gained before an entity commences trade with a foreign company or individual. It helps to effectively countermand the deceptive effects provided merely by an attractive website and offers safeguards against the ease with which a company that exists only in cyberspace can steal away the investment capital of hardworking businessmen.
Access to accurate global business information on demand allows for more informed decisions on offering credit or engaging in any business transaction whether locally or internationally originated.
Creditinfo Academy in Guyana – working together to improve risk management in the new era of credit bureau
Attendees were shown case studies of the impact in other countries across the world where access to finance had grown considerably and especially for SMEs who are often seen as a motor for growth. Furthermore, banks have more efficient procedures and control on bad debts which leads to a more stable banking environment.
In the second session, attendees were given a real insight of how they can use credit reports to change the decisions of every loan application. Individuals and business applicants will be judged objectively on the real evidence of their historical payments removing much of the subjective element. Working in teams, the attendees were able to discuss the practical issues while on-line to Creditinfo Guyana’s system and credit reports. Together they shared experiences with their peers from different institutions. Continue reading »
Customer Service at Creditinfo Lithuania
Today, the Creditinfo employees received a presentation from 2 of their colleagues at Creditinfo Lithuania, Gerda Venckevičiūtė, Sales and Customer Department Director and Aurimas Kacinskas, Head of Customer Care Department. Our two colleagues spoke about how Creditinfo Lithuania approach customer service and work effectively with their customers.
You can watch the presentation video here: Vimeo
Contact Gerda at gerda.venckeviciute@creditinfo.lt
And Aurimas can be reached at Aurimas.Kacinskas@creditinfo.lt or via Linked In at: www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=8684170
Over 6 million Creditinfo Predictor Scores in just one year
The increased availability of credit in Georgia over the last few years has led to the financial institutions needing 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.
Banks and other financial institutions have identified through their in-depth analysis that, one of the critical components of high quality credit assessment in Georgia is the Creditinfo Predictor Score provided by Creditinfo Georgia, which enables them to understand the risk of individuals or businesses that are requesting credit. Not only is this Score 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.
Creditinfo Predictor provides a most powerful and effective way of assessing the information held at Creditinfo credit bureaus. Evaluating credit bureau data is an integral part of the consumer lending process. The potential of this data goes far beyond the existence, or not, of historic bad payments. The in-depth analysis performed by Creditinfo as part of the development of Creditinfo Predictor for both businesses and individuals, unlocks the full power of the data. This includes economic data, credit activity and demographic information. Continue reading »
Activity and Progress
Almar is the CEO of Creditinfo International
I hope you guys are well into your year, spring will be in the air soon and lots of things going on. In my 5 years in Creditinfo, I have never witnessed so much activity and progress.
It is truly a lot of exciting challenges that we have ahead of us and we should ensure we do our best but don’t forget to have fun while at it.
Creditinfo is entering an interesting era in its life and it needs all of us for guidance and help to go from being an unruly teenager to become an unruly adult!
Creditinfo – Back to Baku
Creditinfo recently provided effective training and consultancy for Bank Standard in Baku, Azerbaijan, in succession to the Bank recently developing an in-house application processing system and integrating a scorecard developed by Creditinfo Solutions into the software.
The training and consultancy were carried out over 5 days in relation to the Bank Standard’s application processing system and credit granting processes. The project included a complete review of their in-house application processing solution, along with a basic review of the operations and roles management at the head office. Continue reading »
Creditinfo Lithuania examined athletic form
After the final financial results of 2013 Creditinfo Lithuania refreshed team playing water polo and table tennis.
Why use a Credit Bureau and the impacts in markets
Paul Randall, Business Development Director, Creditinfo International, and one of our regular Creditinfo Academy speakers and trainers, today gave a presentation on “Introduction to Credit Bureau and Achieving Benefits of Credit Information Sharing Initiative”.
Paul discussed the different infrastructure of a Credit Bureau, and went on to discuss four key market changes after a Crediti Bureau is introduced into the market place. He discussed a case study in Georgia.
You can view Paul’s presentation here: Why use CB and impact on the markets – Paul Randall
You can watch Paul’s presentation video here: Vimeo
Tel: +33 60 79 34 884
Email: paul.randall@creditinfo.com
Linked In: www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1195768
Pauls’ Bio
Mathematician by education, risk manager by experience. With over 26 years experience in credit risk management, Paul Randall has been working with Creditinfo since April 2007. Following graduation he worked with 2 retailers on the financial services side JD Williams, M&S Financial Services, then moved to the Co-operative Bank. During the period of his employment Co-operative Bank was an innovative provider of banking services and the risk management environment to support it. It was one of the first orgainstaions to deliver a enterprise wide customer risk assessment supporting all decision processes. He then moved to the consultancy side, the head of scoring and consultancy in Scorex in UK for 7 years then member of the Experian-Scorex Global Consultancy Team for 7 years. During this period led both direct client consultancy for risk management and Basel II in addition to best practice documentation. The global support was across over 25 countries, such as Taiwan, US, UK, South Korea, Brazil and Hungary. At Creditinfo he was initially managing director of Creditifno Decision then has moved to the Director of Business Development.
Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) extremely satisfied with Creditinfo’s Public Credit Registry System
Creditinfo recently designed a system to record and analyse credit information for Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB). The new system was implemented in December 2013, less than 9 months after the tender organised by the Central Bank of Afghanistan (in cooperation with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Harakat Organization) was won by Creditinfo.
Director General for PCR Department of DAB, Mr. Nesar Ahmad Yosufzai recently stated “PCR is extremely satisfied with the implementation of the PCR project to date. The PCR system reduces risk for the banks, enhances loan data quality, and accelerates the process in granting loans whilst maintaining healthy competition. Continue reading »
Players of the month: Iceland
Congratulations everyone at Creditinfo Iceland.
Four years ago, Creditinfo Iceland introduced a new product: Strongest in Iceland.
A detailed analysis is carried out annually highlighting Icelandic companies that have achieved top marks for their strength and stability in the market place.
Creditinfo Guyana provides service to prevent identity theft
It was only a few weeks ago that a warrant was issued for the arrest of a 47-year-old woman who, posing as one of Guyana’s local beauty queens, Olive Gopaul, was able to fraudulently obtain money from several prominent business entities.
But members of Guyana’s only credit bureau—Creditinfo, are contending that such an unfortunate situation could have been prevented in just one minute.
Read more here: http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/02/09/creditinfo-provides-service-to-prevent-identity-theft-within-seconds/
Increasing Financial Inclusion in West Africa – VoLo and Creditinfo Joint Venture. AfDB involved.
Creditinfo and VoLo Africa are pleased to announce their agreement to merge their credit bureau operations and establish a joint venture (JV), Creditinfo VoLo Africa, with the objective of working together in West Africa, in the area of credit bureaus, risk management and biometric information.
The initial intention of the JV is to set up operations in Gambia and Senegal, with Creditinfo Cape Verde also becoming part of the JV. An additional 7 countries are also planned upon receipt of regulatory clearance and approval.
The partnership brings together the Creditinfo experience of developing credit bureaus and risk management solutions in developing markets such as Tanzania, with the VoLo experience of biometrics and in depth experience of West Africa financial services.
Both organisations will actively be involved in steering the future of the business in Africa, bringing structure and strategic direction with the aim of increasing the stability of the African financial system and stimulating investment and financial inclusion, to create an environment in which the African banks can provide the required facilities for all borrowers, ranging from small enterprises and micro enterprises.
25th Annual Meeting of “the Club” for Banks and Credit Institutions from Africa
Several leaders of banks and credit institutions from Africa met in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on 6th & 7th February 2014 for the Annual Meeting of the Club des Dirigeants des Banques et Institutions de Crédit d’Afrique (the Club). The meeting marked the 25th anniversary of the Club.
At the opening session, the Prime Minister, Mr. Daniel Kablan Duncan voiced his pleasure at the Club choosing to meet in the Ivorian economic capital.Creditinfo were equally pleased to be invited to deliver a presentation advising on the benefits of establishing a Credit Bureau and how the banks and credit institutions should be prepared for the arrival of a central risk.
During his welcome, Mr. Duncan advised that the growth dynamics of African states should be accompanied by the African banking sector. In this sense, he also spoke of the banking sector supporting the financing of major infrastructure projects likely to consolidate the development of states.
Selling is Simple
That is according to Alex Lazarov, CEO of Creditinfo Solutions. Alex shared a presentation with Creditinfo employees on how sales can be changed from what many deem to be a difficult task into something quite enjoyable. He spoke about the basics and then got into the nitty gritty of working effectively with your customers and the “What’s in it for me” concept.
You can watch the presentation video he
re: Vimeo
Alex can be reached at:
Email: a.lazarov@creditinfosolutions.com
Skype: alexander.lazarov3
Linked In: ca.linkedin.com/pub/alexander-lazarov/41/784/1b2
Alex’s Bio
Alex has over 15 years of management experience internationally. Over the last 10 years he specialized in the field of Credit Risk Management with careers at Toronto Dominion Bank and Bank of America at the VP level. Some of his responsibilities included managing banking operations, creation and implementation of loss prevention strategies, and portfolio risk/reward analyses. In August 2012 Alex became the CEO of Creditinfo Solutions. In this role he is responsible for the overall activities of the company, for the support of numerous clients worldwide, and for the project delivery and product development of various solutions in the realm of Credit Bureaus and Risk Management. He is also a certified Advanced SAS Programmer and Predictive Modeler, has degrees in IT and Management, and enjoys playing chess.
