Korn attacks BOT for ‘distorting’ his party’s proposed policy on credit score
Chart Pattana Kla Party leader Korn Chatikavanij on Monday cried foul over the central bank "distorting" the main idea of his party’s election campaign on the proposed credit score system.
Korn’s Facebook post was a response to a a two-minute video clip uploaded on the BOT’s FB page on Monday morning, explaining why the National Credit Bureau (NCB) was important for the banking system.
Korn said the clip was a veiled criticism of his party’s election campaign policy regarding his proposal for banks to use a new credit score system instead of using the blacklist of the NCB for granting loans.
The clip showed two speakers, apparently staff of the BOT, chatting about the functions of the NCB.
The male staff says: “There is also an issue about the credit bureau. [Someone] wants [its blacklist records] to be erased.”
“This was a distortion of Chart Pattana Kla’s proposed policy because the anchorman uttered the first sentence about the proposal to erase [the credit bureau’s records],” Korn said in his post.
“Then, the two speakers expanded on the topic by showing an illustration on why the information of the credit bureau could not be erased.”
Korn, a former finance minister, pointed out that his party’s policy did not seek to erase any information of the NCB or to dissolve the bureau.
Instead, he said, his party would propose legal amendments for banks to depend on a new system called credit score instead of depending on the blacklist of loan defaulters of the NCB when considering loan applications.
Korn said his party’s proposed system aims to have banks also consider the credit score for the loan applicants’ ability to honour other payments, such as water bills, power bills, phone bills and bills of raw materials they need for their work, although they might have defaulted on a loan.
“We regard that all of these should be counted as points and compiled in the credit score. So, there will be no blacklist and the scores will go up or down in real time,” Korn said.
He said the blacklisted debtors would have to wait three years before they could clean their blacklist records with the NCB.
Korn said the proposed credit score system would lead to competition among banks to grant loans based on the applicants’ credit score.
He said it would be more constructive if the central bank came up with new ideas on how to adjust the credit assessment system so that many Thais would not be shunned by the banking system.
“I think the BOT doesn’t only have the duty to supervise the stability of financial systems but also to help reduce financial costs for the people and the business sector,” Korn wrote.
“Please don’t mislead the people to oppose what we didn’t say we would do. It would waste time and cause confusion in society.”
Earlier, Korn had proposed the credit score idea before his party launched election campaign posters on streets. Due to limited space on the posters, Korn used the term “cancel blacklist” to convey his idea of adopting a new credit score system instead. The posters prompted the NCB and the BOT to to make the case that the blacklist system of the bureau could not be erased or abolished.
