China is set to release an updated version of its personal credit report as part of the country's broader efforts in strengthening its social credit system. The report, which will cover almost every aspect of daily life including overdue water and phone bills as well as spouse information, will become a "second ID and invisible resume" for citizens, analysts said.
The Credit Reference Center, an independent credit information service institution under the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has been developing a new version of the personal credit report, which is likely to be officially launched in the near future, the Economic Daily reported over the weekend.
The new report will feature more "detailed, comprehensive and precise credit dimensions," said the Economic Daily, citing He Nanye, a research fellow with the Suning Institute of Finance.
In addition to some basic personal information that was required by the current credit report system, the new version will include more details such as spouse information and more complete professional information, He said.
Individual financial activities such as repayment and overdue payments will be recorded in the new report, which will also focus on information including telecommunications, water supply payment, overdue taxes, civil rulings, enforcement, administrative punishment, subsistence allowance, professional qualifications and administrative incentives, according to the report.
With the new credit report, personal credit status can be more truly reflected, the credit management of financial institutions will become increasingly targeted and credit risk can be effectively reduced.
Under the new social credit system, any discredited behaviors will be recorded, leading to restrictions in credit losers' daily activities. For example, credit approval from financial institutions can be affected for a person with negative records on their credit report.
"Credit is a person's second ID card. It is a business card and an invisible resume," Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday.
China's personal credit system was developed relatively late compared with Western countries, and it is not widely used and not yet mature, lacking a strong binding impact on people's credit, a Beijing-based industry insider surnamed Chen told the Global Times on Sunday.
"Most of the people had weak awareness about building personal credit in previous years, and the new credit report is expected to become a reminder for them to learn about the importance of social credit," Chen said.
