China launches online credit information service

Service began Oct. 28. Chinese living in nine provincial-level regions (including Beijing and Guangdong) can look up their personal credit reports using an online inquiry service. The new platform is expected to draw public attention to personal credit records and help make credit management a part of people's daily routine. It is another form of credit tracking and will be available to the entire population in the first half of 2014, said the People's Bank of China. PBOC began building its database of credit information in 2006. The database collected information on 820 million individuals, of which 290 million had personal credit files. This database served as a yardstick for financial institutions to measure an individual's trustworthiness, especially when providing a loan. The China Banking Association said China’s financial institutions issued 330 million credit cards by the end of 2012, with annual trading of US$1.63 trillion. PBOC said banks' outstanding loans for home purchases stood at US$1.4 trillion as of end September.