Everyone who is interested in finances at least a little
Everyone who is interested in finances at least a little, probably heard about BIK. What exactly is the Credit Information Bureau? What functions does it fulfill? Who works with him? What data is transferred to BIK We will answer this and other questions in this article.
Credit Information Bureau, as the name suggests, deals with the collection and provision of credit and economic information. It is worth emphasizing here that the range covers economic entities and natural persons operating in Poland. Through BIK, information is exchanged between the banking sector and entrepreneurs from various industries.
BIK or BIK Group?
When we talk about BIK Group, in addition to the Credit Information Bureau, we also mean BIG (Economic Information Bureau InfoMonitor SA). The latter institution deals with the receipt, storage and provision of economic information about the indebtedness of individuals and companies, and the basis of its activity is the Act of 9 April 2010 on sharing business information and exchange of economic data (Journal of Laws of 2014, item. 1015 tj). As it is easy to guess, BIG keeps a register of economic debtors. This information exchange platform is extremely popular. It is estimated that every 2 seconds someone gets a report on overdue debt! Let’s return to the first component of the BIK Group – Credit Information Bureau.
How does the Credit Information Bureau work?
First of all, BIK collects huge amounts of data. This means that if we decide to take a loan from any bank, SKOK or larger loan company, this information will go to the Office. This is not only about information about unpaid loans or unpaid installments. BIK stores data on both negative and positive credit history. It is worth emphasizing here that positive information constitutes up to 90% of data collected by BIK.
Legal basis of the Credit Information Bureau
BIK operates based on art. 105 para. 4 of the Banking Law. This provision allows the institution to access information that is part of banking secrecy to support banks and credit unions in assessing the creditworthiness of potential customers. This means that before the bank gives you information about how your loan application has been processed, it will check your credit history. At the request of the bank, BIK creates a special report on a given person and provides it to the bank. If your creditworthiness is positive, the bank has a reason to give you credit (but it does not have to do this, in the next paragraph). To keep your ability, you only need to pay installments on time. This timeliness will be noted by the Credit Information Bureau and in the future, when you take out another loan, it will work in your favor.
Does only the report matter?
It is worth emphasizing that a positive BIK report does not immediately mean that we will get a loan in every financial institution. These institutions can take this decision independently and the BIK report should be treated as one of the component factors. It’s easy to guess what, in addition to credit history, is another important factor when making a decision to grant a loan. Of course, this is about your current creditworthiness. The financial institution, therefore, supports the data from BIK, but also asks us for information about current income.
What data is transferred?
The Credit Information Office collects data on:
- loans for the purchase of services, goods and securities;
- housing loans;
- student loans;
- non-point loans;
- employee loans;
- credit card, retail, debit card;
- guaranteed loans;
- debit limit in ROR.
As you can see, the positive and negative information that flows to BIK concerns various credit accounts at banks and Credit Unions.
What else does do?
The Credit Information Bureau on its official website explicitly confirms the importance of social responsibility for it. For this reason, he engages in various social actions that support the general interest. One of them is Nieskradzione.pl. Through it, BIK educates about the dangers of identity theft and how to steal from such theft. Another action is the Recover Alimony action. Thanks to this action, a person who has a court judgment granting the right to alimony can enter his debtor in the BIG Register. The cost of this service is a symbolic one zloty.
Scale of activity
BIK has existed since 1997. Currently, over 400 people work here. BIK has information on 148 credit accounts from over 700 various financial institutions. Thus, it constitutes an unrivaled, in terms of size and quality, a set of data on entrepreneurs and individual clients. BIK, cooperates with all co-operative and commercial banks (and with loan companies), and the information it collects is one of the pillars of the banking system in Poland.