The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has stressed the importance of alternative data sources in its efforts to create a unified credit system for the whole of the country.
Chen Yulu (陈雨露), deputy-governor of PBOC, said that a “credit system covering all of society is fundamental infrastructure for China’s high quality growth and modernisation of the economic system.
“Since the 18th Party Congress (in 2012), the development of China’s credit system has achieved major progress, and the credit sector services sphere has gradually spread from bank credit to commercial credit as well as other areas of substitute (alternative) data in relation to credit.”
Chen made the remarks at a recent meeting held by PBOC on the integration of the credit system in the Yangtze River Delta region.
The meeting concluded that “substitute data plays a key role in a modernised credit system, and is a valuable supplement to lending information.”
“Market-based substitute data credit information connections are currently a major step in the establishment of a credit system that covers the whole of society.
“The use of substitute data to provide credit management services for financial and economic activity is itself categorised as a form of credit reporting activity, and must be included in credit reporting regulation.”
The meeting also called for the use of “blockchain and big data technologies to achieving the sharing and connection of data between credit reporting agencies” during efforts to integrate the credit system of the Yangtze River Delta.
