Ghana's Credit Reporting Regulations, 2020 (LI 2396)
In line with section 60 of the Credit Reporting Act, 2007 (Act 726), Parliament recently passed the Credit Reporting Regulations, 2020 (LI 2396). The Credit Reporting Regulations applies to credit bureaus, financial institutions, persons permitted to provide data or have access to credit information by credit bureaus, data providers, and authorised users.
The Regulations sets the standards for the safety and security of credit information, designates additional sources of data for credit bureaus as data providers, and provides rules and guidelines for credit reporting activities in line with international best practices. The Regulations require that data submitted to credit bureaus by data providers conform to the Credit Reporting Data Format prescribed by the Bank of Ghana. The data must be accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date, and reflect the terms of the account and the credit facility performance with respect to the account of the credit information subject, among other things. Further, credit bureaus are required to protect the confidentiality of customer information received and ensure the integrity of their database by preventing misuse or unauthorised access to the database and data loss or data corruption.
These Regulations are expected to help ease credit default and consequently reduce non-performing loans.