Government consultation on access to data for credit reference agencies

Tuesday, 18 July 2023 09:00

The Government has made the following announcement today, proposing to change the way data is accessed by credit reference agencies to help Islanders obtain loans, credit cards, and other sources of credit.

By early 2024, the Government is aiming to provide credit reference agencies with access to data from the People Directory, a central repository that holds address and contact details of the general public.

The People Directory is currently used across Government of Jersey departments to deliver a consistent and collective service to individuals, companies, and organisations. This will help credit reference agencies provide affordability checks and CDD (KYC) checks in accordance with money laundering obligations.

Providing access to data through the People Directory is necessary due to the automated use of data sources used by banks and credit providers to manage their onboarding processes. Jersey has different sources of data and this has created complications and increased costs for those companies offering the same services to the Jersey market, including an absence of information available to credit reference agencies.

Deputy Elaine Millar, Assistant Chief Minister with delegated responsibility for Financial Services, said: “Over the past five years, there has been a withdrawal of credit card providers from Jersey. This proposal is a great step forward and should allow more banks and other financial services
providers to offer credit to individuals and businesses in Jersey.

"We are asking Islanders to provide Government with their feedback on this proposal and, if enacted, we hope this should remove some of the known hurdles to banks and card service providers offering products such as credit cards. We hope that banks, loan companies and credit card providers will recognise this and provide a full range of services for Islanders.”

Islanders are asked to give their views on credit reference agencies accessing data in this way as part of a Government of Jersey consultation.

Details of the consultation, and a link to the survey, are available here: Credit reference agency access to information

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