THERE will be better risk management, quicker decisions and more accurate pricing of the risk associated with credit decisions due to the formalisation of the credit reporting environment in Jamaica, according to Megan Deane, CEO of the island’s first licensed credit bureau, Creditinfo Jamaica Limited.

The company is a joint venture between Creditinfo Group headquartered in Iceland and the local company Coalesce Credit Solutions Limited.

Speaking to local business representatives at a “Meet the Ministers” ( Anthony Hylton, Minister of Industry, Investment & Commerce) breakfast meeting at the Jamaica Pegasus on March 22, 2012, Deane said that “reliable, credible and accessible credit information and history will revolutionise the way credit decisions are made in Jamaica.”

She said that there would be “better risk management, quicker decisions and more accurate pricing of the risk associated with credit decisions.”

Noting that persons who had difficulty accessing credit before because of a lack of collateral will be able to negotiate unsecured access to credit if they could demonstrate an excellent credit history and a high credit score, Deane predicted these developments would lead to a culture change in a number of areas.

The culture change she elaborated, will take place “within organisations as decisions become more and more automated and risk assessment is priced more accurately” as well as “among the general populace as the recognition is made that without a credit history there is going to be a limitation on the amount and the type of business one can do”.

Deane also predicted a culture change “in the promotion of discipline and fiscal responsibility since individuals and companies will learn that with a good credit history and eventually a good credit score, they can negotiate the best deals for themselves, as they are negotiating from a position of strength”.

Deane reported that Creditinfo Jamaica, will be fully operational by mid-year and will differentiate itself from the competition by focusing not just on the core business of individual and corporate credit data but also on developing value added products from publicly accessible data sources, packaging them and making them easily accessible to users.

Creditinfo Jamaica Limited, she said, “aims to contribute to the transformation of the way business is done in Jamaica by becoming the centrifugal force of business decisions”.

“Our products will empower the consumer while simultaneously protecting the interests of the lending institutions and financial sector”, Deane declared.