Rising demand for loans sees revenues rise at Irish Credit Bureau

Revenues at the Irish Credit Bureau (ICB) rose by almost 10 per cent in 2015, as growing demand for loans increased the amount of credit checks undertaken by lenders.

Turnover at the credit reference agency rose to €4.9 million in the year to December 31st, 2015, up from €4.5 million in 2014, as pre-tax profits rose to €3.7 million, up by 171 per cent on 2014. This was helped by an exceptional gain of almost €1 million, due to the termination of both executive and staff-defined benefit pension schemes.

In 2014 the ICB reported an exceptional loss of more than €1 million due to costs incurred in its tendering for the new Central Credit Register (CCR) and the early retirement of its former chief executive Seamus O’Tighearnaigh.

A dividend of €2,811,330 was paid to the major Irish banks, credit card providers and credit unions that own the ICB, up from €937,110 in 2014. The ICB employed 13 people as of the end of 2015.

In 2015 the Central Bank appointed CRIF, an Italian credit data specialist, to set up and operate the new Central Credit Register (CCR), after the ICB failed in its tender to win the contract.

It is expected that the register, which is being set up to give lenders accurate and up-to-date information about borrowers’ credit history and prevent reckless lending, will produce credit reports for individual lenders after December 31st, 2017, subject to data quality assurance. As a result, the future of the ICB is “uncertain”, the bureau said in its accounts.