The Barbados Government has rebuffed a warning from the Caribbean Credit Bureau Limited (CCBL), that this country’s Fair Credit Reporting Act, is likely to cause job losses and the leakage of Barbadians’ financial data outside the region.
The bureau said in a press release issued Monday that the legislation – which has created a regulatory environment to promote the development of a fair credit reporting system; regulation of the use of such data; and the secure keeping of the private data of persons collected by a credit bureau – was not necessary and has the potential to do more harm than good.
“There is no need to regulate the business of credit bureaus as we currently have a system in place that has been proven to work for players in this sector and by extension our stakeholders,” the CCBL said.
But today, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn dismissed the position of the bureau that the existing act would have a negative impact on Barbadians’ way of life.
“Many Barbadians, both as individuals and businesses, pay their bills habitually [online], and the proper recording of that is actually going to unlock further access to capital, which naturally will lead to more investment, certainly at the business level and then even within the investor class. Therefore I don’t share the pessimistic view that the introduction of the regulations around how credit bureaus are regulated, will have that negative impact on persons,” Straughn told Barbados TODAY.
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