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Press Release - 12th

 November 2013

Getting Credit – how easy is it for you? 

The World Bank has recently published the 2014 report of Doing Business. This annually published report is

based on investigations of the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. From

the information collated and reviewed, the authors use quantitative indicators to compare each country,

providing a ranking on how easy it is to conduct business within each country.

This year’s report looks at eleven areas of business regulation, from starting a business through to trading

across borders, including a category on “Getting Credit”.

Promoting access to finance for small and medium-size firms has seen an increased focus since the recent

financial crises. Getting credit has significant impact on the economy, as it is a basis for growth and

profitability of businesses.

As the name suggests, Creditinfo’s core business is information in relation to credit, offering services tocover each stage of the customer life cycle. Reynir Grétarsson, CEO and owner of the Creditinfo Group of

Companies explains “Among other things, our services help businesses evaluate prospective customers,

monitor existing ones and manage the debts that they may have incurred. Basically, we collate data from as

many sources as possible and provide it to those people who have a rightful reason to use that data. We

carry out these services in accordance with the relevant legal framework in each of the countries where we

operate.” 

Sharing information among creditors reduces the likelihood of financial crisis and increases growth. This is

as a result of information asymmetries between banks and borrowers, enabling banks to make better

lending decisions and increasing the probability of loan repayments.

In addition to enabling the lender to make more informed decisions, it also allows the borrower to develop a

good reputation for repayment, which they can use as collateral when applying for future credit.Trustworthy and reliable customers gain as they benefit from securing more favourable credit terms and

conditions.

The Doing Business report rankings on the ease of getting credit are based on three areas:

  the sum of the strength of legal rights index;

  the depth of credit information index; and

  the coverage of the population of that country.

Although a Credit Bureau cannot change the law, Creditinfo is often influential in creation or changes of

legislation.

The establishment of an effective Credit Bureau within a country is an area that will improve the Getting

Credit rankings, when executed in a professional manner, as a result of improving the ease to accessing

credit. As a result it improves the relative position of a country when it comes to investment and business

operation.

This is supported in the Table 1 where a sample of the results have been taken from the Doing Business in

2014 report. The data depicts a measure showing the distance of each economy to the “frontier.” An

economy’s distance to “frontier” is reflected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest

performance and 100 represents the frontier. For example, a score of 50 in DB 2013 means an economy was

50 percentage points away from the frontier which is constructed from the best performances across all

economies and across time. A score of 80 for the same country in the report the year later would indicate

the economy is improving. In this way, the distance to frontier measure complements the ranking givenoverall for the ease of doing business, which compares economies with one another at a point in time.

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Table 2

The sample shown highlights four countries where Creditinfo have established a Credit Bureau. As a

comparison, two regions where credit information sharing is renowned for excellence in this area (UK &

USA) have been included plus a few other comparative economies with Credit Bureaus.

Doing Business in 2014 - Distance to the “Frontier” 

Notes:1 Creditinfo established operations in Georgia

in 2005, since opening it has significantly

improved operations assisting local banks and

financial institutions.

2Creditinfo have been shareholders in the

International Bureau of Credit Histories (IBCH)

& First Credit Bureau Ukraine (FCBU) since

2005.

3  Creditinfo established operations in

Lithuania in 2003, since then expanding its

services to cover all aspects of credit risk

management. 

4  Creditinfo have been shareholders in FCBK,

the first credit bureau established in

Kazakhstan, since 2005.

Mr Grétarsson advises, “The success of a Credit Bureau is dependent on the continued support from 

organisations supplying credit information. Our clients around the globe are in various industries but they all

have one thing in common – they all grant credit to someone else. They range from large financial institutes

to SMEs with just a handful of employees. It is proven that our data further improves by adding credit

information from retailers, trade creditors and utility companies, as well as from financial institutions.” 

Using systems and services similar to those of Creditinfo creates greater transparency and consequently, it

levels the playing field for all involved, creating mutual trust between organisations and ultimately enabling

the economy to grow.

Creditinfo have recently launched operations in Guyana,

Jamaica, Tanzania and will soon open in Barbados. The

“Getting Credit”  category rankings for Doing Business in

2014 for these countries are shown in  Table 2. These

rankings were from a total of 189 countries. These lowerpositions are due to the current greater constrains on the

ease of getting credit.

Creditinfo aims to support these markets to improve these

rankings over the coming years. The support which

Creditinfo delivers is equally marked by knowledge and

expertise as it is by the advanced technical support.

These countries are the first of a new wave which will see greater access to credit over the next decade, in

part due to the efforts of Creditinfo, facilitating improvements in the ability to do business.

For further information: www.creditinfo.com  •  info@creditinfo.com 

Economy

Doing

Business

in 2006

Doing

Business

in 2007

Doing

Business

in 2014

Improvement

2006

v 2014

United

Kingdom100 100 ….  100 0

Georgia1  31.25 50 ….  93.75 62.5

United States 93.75 93.75 ….  93.75 0

Ukraine2  56.25 56.25 ….  87.5 31.25

Lithuania3  68.75 68.75 ….  81.25 12.5

France 50 62.5 ….  68.75 18.75

Azerbaijan 62.5 62.5 ….  68.75 6.25

Kazakhstan4  18.75 43.75 ….  56.25 37.5

Russian

Federation18.75 18.75 ….  50 31.25

EconomyGetting Credit Ranking

- Doing Business 2014

Barbados 86

Guyana 170

Jamaica 109

Tanzania 130

Table 1