November 7: The Credit Information Centre has started blacklisting the people who do not clear loans taken from micro finance companies as well.

Microfinance companies got affiliation to the Credit Information Centre as per the instruction of Nepal Rastra Bank and started sharing information about credit investment.

Subsequently, the centre started blacklisting bad borrowers.

The centre, which has been publishing a blacklist of defaulters from banks and financial institutions, has started publishing a separate blacklist of customers of microfinance companies since the beginning of the current fiscal year.

 According to the data published by the centre, 39 debtors have been blacklisted as of November 4 last week.

The blacklisted persons will not get loans from any bank or financial institution.

Two years ago, Nepal Rastra Bank instructed microfinance companies to become members of the Credit Information Center and exchange information in order to eliminate the duplication of loans.

According to the instructions, microfinance companies must obtain credit information from the centre about the borrower/customer before disbursing loans, renewing old loans, or rescheduling loans. Bad debtors who have not paid their loans should be recommended to be blacklisted in the information centre. At present, there is a provision that microfinance companies should recommend blacklisting borrowers who do not repay loans of more than Rs 500,000.

However, if the institution wishes, it can also recommend blacklisting borrowers who take loans of less than Rs 500,000. Similarly, the related organization should recommend to the information centre to remove them from the list after the blacklisted debtor pays the principal and interest of the loan.

Prakashraj Sharma, president of Nepal Microfinance Bankers Association, said that according to the instructions of the Nepal Rastra  Bank, all the microfinance companies have become members of the information centre and are exchanging information on loan investment.