Govt to Establish Myanmar’s First Credit Bureau

By Myo Pa Pa San 14 May 2018

YANGON — The Union government has approved establishing the country’s first credit bureau, said Vice President 1 U Myint Swe.

The vice president revealed the plan during his regular meeting with private businesses at the office of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) on Friday.

“The cabinet approved the establishment of a credit bureau on May 10. The survey on ease of doing business for 2019 will end in the second week of May. So, we have given the approval ahead of this,” said the vice president.

The vice president hopes that Myanmar’s rank on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index will improve due to the establishment of a credit bureau. It will also provide small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with easier access to loans, according to the vice president.

“The credit bureau will collect information about the overall performance of individual companies so that companies [that perform well] may not need to put up collateral to get loans. The database will record the business performance of companies,” said U Toe Aung Myint, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Commerce.

Lenders can assess the risk of providing loans to SMEs based on the information provided by the credit bureau, said joint general secretary U Aung Kyi Soe of the UMFCCI.

“So, the credit bureau will contribute to banks. Our fellow ASEAN countries have also established successful credit bureaus,” he said.

In his New Year’s speech on April 17, Myanmar’s President U Win Myint said that his cabinet would approve the credit bureau within one month to help the country’s banks assess the risk of providing loans to SMEs.

The credit bureau is a joint venture between the Myanmar Banks Association (MBA) and Asian Credit Bureau Holdings based in Singapore.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.