Credit bureaus report increase in bad debt
The National Credit Regulator (NCR) regulates and monitors registered credit bureaus and the quality of the data they create, based on credit information received from credit providers on a monthly basis.
As at the quarter ended June 2009, credit bureaus had records for 17.79 million credit-active consumers and produced the following debt profiles.
- Percentage of consumers in good standing - 55.9%; decrease 1.7% compared to quarter ended March 2009 and 4.5% compared with quarter ended June 2008.
- Consumers with impaired records - 7.85 million; deterioration of 390 000 to last quarter and 1.06 million year-on-year. This has been on the increase since June 2007.
- Consumer credit records enquiries - 121.46 million; increase of 23.4% quarter-on-quarter
o Banks and other financial institutions - 39.4%
o Retailers - 14.2%
o Telecommunications providers - 23.7%
o Other - 22.7% - Credit reports issued to consumers increased; 33 662 free credit reports issued, an increase of 9.8% quarter-on-quarter. A further 5288 credit reports were issued with charge.
- Disputes lodged - 7 072 disputes; quarter-on-quarter decrease of 15.5% and a year-on-year decrease of 26.8%.