Ms Catherine Collins:

For something such as asset finance, namely, a simple case of a man going out to buy a white van, the credit bureau is the be all and end all. The banks give very quick answers on those decisions. They look at the credit bureau information and if there is a chequered history, the answer will generally be "No" and will come very promptly in the form of a same-day response. An SME loan is more complex. The banks will look in more depth at the business and its ability to generate cash. They will take into account what has happened with the credit bureau.

There is no way for the credit bureau to assess whether a borrower is co-operating or not. The bank may have agreed a different repayment schedule during the hard times but that will be seen as a black mark on the credit bureau record. Sometimes one has to dig down through that and explain it. That is the work some of our reviewers would do when we are taking on a case. It is one issue for the borrowers to understand.

Very few people are aware of what is on their credit bureau record. The new credit register, which, I understand, is going to be available in 2016 for consumers and at the end of 2017 for incorporated entities, will give one free report each year to each individual or entity. That will be good as people will become more aware of it. We found the lack of awareness to exist even on a personal basis. People who may have had problems with their mortgages, for example, might go to Harvey Norman to buy a washing machine and find they cannot get it on tick because they have a bad credit bureau record, and that is the first they know about it.

There is an education piece for businesses to learn how important it is to keep the record clean and to work with it. This is just in respect of the credit register and the credit bureau; we are not even talking about credit scoring, which is another kettle of fish. There is a whole body of advice on how to make sure one's credit score is kept in the right way. We will have to get into that when the credit register comes on stream.