JSC “International Bureau of Credit Histories” launched the chatbot “MBKI online” in order to provide Ukrainians and migrants from Ukraine with access to their credit histories.
Lending is one of the main elements of the modern financial system. In one way or another, most people rely on loans from banks – whether these are credits, mortgages, installments, credit cards to pay for critical goods and services. An important role in this process is played by credit bureaus that collect, store, process and transmit information on borrowers’ payment discipline, credit scoring and current obligations.
However, when people move to a new country or are forcibly evicted from their homes due to occupation or fleeing war – this is what many Ukrainians are currently experiencing – it becomes much more difficult to access financial and other services. This unfortunately disadvantages refugees and adds to the problem regardless of whether they had good or bad credit history before.
Aiming to resolve issues related to solvency confirmation of the tenant from Ukraine and checking the credit history of Ukrainians when applying for a loan or employment, JSC “IBCH” (one of the largest Credit History Bureaus in Ukraine, a member of the international Creditinfo Group since May 2021) created the “MBKI online” chatbot.
For more than 16 years IBCH (Creditinfo Ukraine) has been cooperating with the largest banks and non-bank financial institutions, including foreign financial institutions and credit bureaus of other countries. The organization is now focusing its attention on supporting Ukrainians, both in Ukraine and abroad, with getting access to credit reports.
Kateryna Danylchenko, CEO of JSC “IBCH” (Creditinfo Ukraine), stated, “Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, over 6 million people – including myself, my fellow colleagues and partners– have been forced to leave the country at short notice with no idea if or when they will return. Displaced Ukrainian refuges face a whole host of challenges without necessary documentation or access to registries. While JSC “IBCH” (MBKI, Creditinfo Ukraine) became the first Ukrainian bureau to launch cross-border data sharing with bureaus from 5 countries, it is also important to assure easy and mobile direct-to-consumer gate to credit history reports. “MBKI online” is so important in helping Ukrainians staying in country and abroad gain online access to their credit histories (also in English), so they can prove their ability to make payments on time to landlords or new employers, follow their credit history updates and bureau score change, as well as to report about lost identification documents.”
“Creditinfo was set up to aid financial inclusion through making credit information more easily accessible and digestible for borrowers and lenders.” – comments Paul Randall, CEO Creditinfo Group. “I’m so glad that there’s something practical we’ve been able to do to help Ukrainian refugees across Europe to access financial services. The creation of this chatbot is an important development in our journey to make the lives of everyone forcibly displaced by this war that tiny bit easier.”
The “MBKI online” chatbot, available on Viber and Telegram, gives Ukrainians access to their own credit history and offers an easy way of identification including using BankID.
Chatbot enables the customer:
• To get a certificate about credit history (in Ukrainian and English);
• To find out personal credit score;
• To get answers to basic questions about credit history;
• To inform the Bureau about the loss of a passport or other identity document;
• To ask for a loan and find out available offers.
Chatbot accepts different payment methods (including bank card, Apple Pay and Google Pay). For more information and to start working with the service, follow the link: https://credithistory.com.ua/bots/
More needs to be done to achieve gender parity
Independent analysis done by Creditinfo using its vast data assets showed that gender balance in the workplace is far from being achieved. Companies need to keep this top of mind when it comes to creating leadership opportunities for women as the world moves towards closing the gap on gender parity.
Analysis by Creditinfo Iceland showed that last year, women were only appointed CEOs in a quarter of new hires in Iceland. Women accounted for 25% of new hires for the position of CEO, although this was an improvement on the 20% average over the last five years. Today, women hold around 18% of the CEO positions in the 6,000 active companies, but only about 13% of them are CEOs of the 1,000 higher-turnover companies.
The FKA (Women’s Association in Business) in Iceland, has a set a goal in their “Gender Balance Scale” project that by 2027 the gender ratio will be at least 40/60 in the executive boards in Iceland. The project was established in 2017 and has helped to promote diversity and balance through greater gender equality in management positions.
If we look at the rate of change of last 10 years, it is clear that the goal will not be achieved until 2061. If the share of women in CEO positions is to reach 40% before then, the proportion of women in new hires should be between 58% and 70% by 2027. The analysis also highlights an interesting statistic; a woman is more likely to take over the CEO position if her predecessor was also a woman. That is some food for thought for the gentlemen!
Brynja Baldursdóttir, Managing Director of Creditinfo Iceland has clear views on how to drive change, she says “Given the current proportion of women in new hires, it is clear that the goal of women being at least 40% of CEOs In Iceland by 2027 will not be achieved. It may be more encouraging to focus on raising the proportion of women in new employment to at least 50% in all sectors by 2027. Managers can thus make an immediate impact and help tip the scales.”
In Lithuania gender equality still seems a remote concept according to an analysis recently conducted by Creditinfo Lithuania. At the beginning of March 2021, there were almost 100,000 company managers in Lithuania, of these, only 30% were women. Probably unsurprising the biggest gap is in the construction, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, transport and agriculture sectors. Whereas the smallest gap is in the services, hotel and restaurant businesses. Men start managing companies at just a slightly younger age than women: the average age of female managers is 47 years, and male – 46 years of age. According to the data, a total of 98,127 people worked in the position of corporate managers in Lithuania at the beginning of March, out of which 30% were women, showing the sorry state of affairs.
It is often believed that more women than men are employed in trade, but businesses in this sector are almost three times more likely to be managed by men: 27% women and 73% men.
“Although there is a bias in historically male employee dominated industries the female employee dominated industries are still majority led by males, so the logic does not hold. Across all industries the focus must be on executive management selection on merit alone,” says Jekaterina Rojaka, Creditinfo Lithunaia‘s COO.
According to a report done by the United Nations, women remain significantly underrepresented in all aspects of decision-making, and violence against women in public life is widespread. The attitude that women should not have public roles, enduring norms about gender roles and legal discrimination compound these challenges and devalue women’s contributions to decision-making, threatening sustainable development. The report recommends that in order reach equality in participation and decision-making in public life, it is necessary to implement international and national commitments and norms, including through temporary special measures, create more enabling environments and institutional systems, reduce violence against women in political life and strengthen the voices of women, who face multiple forms of discrimination.
According to another report by the UN Women, women are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, as front-line and health sector workers, as scientists, doctors and caregivers, yet they get paid 11 per cent less globally than their male counterparts. An analysis of COVID-19 task teams from 87 countries found only 3.5 per cent of them had gender parity. As a result, this year’s International Women’s Day is a rallying cry for Generation Equality, to act for an equal future for all.
Creditinfo Group
Creditinfo has a rich diversity of talent within the company. In each of our offices we have a mix of nationalities, genders, ages, cultures, sexual orientation, education among others. These differences within the Creditinfo enable the company to thrive and help us to embrace our company values of respect, innovation and no nonsense and ultimately, we create greater trust, internally and with our clients.
We strive to achieve a balance of genders within each of our 30+ markets, however we still see today a lower number of female applicants for certain roles during the recruitment process, often IT and analytical roles, which limits our options when hiring. Globally, we have 34% females and 66% male, and those percentages are also mirrored in management positions worldwide with approximately 63% male and 37% female.
With focus on International Women’s Day, we asked the Group HR & Operations Support at Creditinfo Group for her views on closing in on the gender gap.
“International Women’s Day has given us an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women worldwide and to also give thought to those women who are not so fortunate. I consider myself lucky to have worked for companies throughout my career that largely support women’s equality, Creditinfo being one of those, where we celebrate and recognize efforts by the women in our company. Recently, our General Manager from Ukraine, Kateryna Danylchenko was recognized as one of the top-50 most influential women of Ukrainian Fintech and these are among some of the achievements we are always proud of. It’d be great to see a more equal split since women’s full and effective participation and leadership in of all areas of life drives progress for everyone”, states Emma Camilleri, Group HR & Operations Support at Creditinfo Group.
#GenerationEquality #IWD2021
Creditinfo IBCH (Ukraine) welcomes Kateryna Danylchenko as new GM
Kateryna has been appointed as GM of IBCH, a Credit Bureau and Analytics company in Ukraine in which Creditinfo has been a strategic investor since 2006.
