Confusion abounds over China's emerging credit reporting industry
Industry standards remain unclear and rules for eight selected companies are still incomplete
If all goes as planned this year, China Chengxin Credit Information, known as CCX, should become one of the first private companies in the country to receive a licence for personal credit reporting, an industry still closely guarded by the state.
The Beijing-based firm was one of eight asked by the People's Bank of China earlier this month to begin preparing personal credit reporting operations, part of the government's longstanding plan to bring the private sector into that market.
The central bank has given the companies, which include subsidiaries of Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, six months to prepare, a call to which some of the companies have eagerly responded.
"CCX is putting much effort into this task," the company's executive director Kong Lingqiang told the South China Morning Post. "Right now the main task at hand is following along with the requests of the regulator and doing a good job preparing this work."
But it's unclear whether CCX or any of the companies named on the central bank's list will open formal credit bureaus anytime soon, regardless of whether they get licences this year.
As the companies move closer to gaining formal approval, Kong said rules and regulations were still incomplete, industry standards unclear, "especially [that concerning] licensing for personal credit reporting".