After introducing an updated version of the Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka (CRIB) system in 2021, utility bill payment details of individuals and institutions will be added to the system, CRIB General Manager Nandi Anthony said.

He said all utility service providers will be informed in this regard to provide payment details to the CRIB.

"The new system is under progress of testing. After introducing the new system, it will help update ten million CRIB reports within a day," he said.

After including utility bill payment details, even a person who did not have records in the CRIB will be able to apply for loans with a good credit score.

"The CRIB has introduced a 'credit score' to the country which is a very important tool for both lenders and borrowers. The borrowers can use this credit score to negotiate better borrowing terms better interests and may be higher levels of credit with better scores. the score does not talk about any history of the borrower. It is just a number between 250 to 900. Higher the score the lower the level of risk of that particular borrower. Lower the score higher the level of the risk of the borrower. So the lending institution can charge of the higher level of interest from people with lower scores and charge a lower level of interest from people who have higher scores.

The 'credit score' is also a tool which can be used as reputational collateral, Mr Anthony said. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)