Opinion Article Open Access

The missing credit information system in Hungary

Abstract

Hungary is one of a few countries that do not operate either a national, non-profit, or a profit oriented business-based complete mandatory credit information system (i.e., credit register or credit bureau). In its absence, the Hungarian banks have not enough information on their borrowers to evaluate their creditworthiness, to apply behavioural scorings or proper risk management and credit pricing tools. The debate on the necessity of a complete credit information system has almost a decade long history in Hungary. Until now, despite all the professional arguments, the counter arguments from the point of view of personal data protection proved to be stronger. The lack of the complete credit information system became even more painful during the recent financial crisis, when the quality of the retail credit portfolio significantly deteriorated. This paper presents the most important milestones of the institutional history of the struggle for the complete credit information system and analyses the tendencies on the Hungarian retail lending market, with special regard to the lack of it

JULIA KIRALY, KATALIN MERA?

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