to have easy access to their own credit profile and apprise the crib of erroneous reporting. with the introduction of the new technology, the reporting institutions as well as the crib should work together to provide positive information of the borrowing clientele, so that their ability to stay in the formal market is made easier. while embarking on new technology, i appeal to the banks, credit institutions, the stakeholders of the crib and all other officials who are present here today to change the attitude of officials working in your organizations and to carry the message that they should establish justice and equity in credit reporting. this would help both the crib and the credit institutions to meet their public policy obligations, in addition to the primary objective of safeguarding the financial system stability. thank you.

members. these witness the high performance of the crib during last year and its contribution to financial system stability by safeguarding the financial institutions from credit defaults and inculcating credit discipline among borrowers. while technological improvements and operational efficiencies are taking place, let us focus for a moment to assess whether the crib has been able to meet its public policy objectives and provide social justice for a wider segment of the population, although such objectives are not enshrined explicitly in the crib act. as a service provider, the crib should look after its clients, but its action should not lead to social injustice and be detrimental to public policy objectives. as we know, the crib was set up at a time during which high credit default rates were posing a threat to the stability of the financial system with the failure of several finance companies. undoubtedly, the crib has been able to prevent the wide - spread credit indiscipline by willful defaulters. however, one needs to weigh the costs and benefits of flagging the defaulting borrowers within the crib ’ s network against the resultant denial of access to, or elimination of, certain borrower groups from the formal credit institutions. in this connection, it is important to identify the class, the segment, or the group of defaulting borrowers who have been denied access to the formal credit institutions. according to information available at the crib as at 20. 06. 2006, of the 261, 322 loans reported, 67 % of borrowers have taken loans less than rs 1 million. the percentage for those who have borrowed less than rs 5 million was 95 % as at the same date. loans over rs 5. 0 million was only 5 % of the total number of loans reported. however, these figures do not include the regular loans below rs 500, 000 / = and irregular loans below rs 100, 000 / =. following the default records forwarded by credit institutions, the crib attaches a negative label and that does not allow many of these defaulters to access any credit institution in this country. in other words, these borrowers have been permanently denied of access to formal lending institutions. there may be others in this group such as the smes, the retailers, self - employed and micro borrowers who, for reasons beyond their control, have faced the same fate. even if a few of them have the potential, in terms of their cash flows or earning capacity, to repay debt