NLR

The National Loans Register (NLR) was officially launched on 23 November 2000 as a mechanism to assist micro lenders with making informed business decisions and to guard against over indebtedness and reckless lending.

In 2003 a reciprocity agreement was entered into between the closed user groups of the CCA (now CPA) and the NLR under the auspices of the then Micro Finance Regulatory Council. This agreement was the result of the need for credit providers to ensure the best possible credit decision is made when granting loans to consumers, across all market segments.

The term of a credit agreement, the credit amount granted, as well as the frequency of updates is some of the main distinctions between the data sets of the CPA and NLR. Where CPA data also contain payment profile information for other industry types, the NLR data is strictly related to credit agreements. These credit agreements are required to be registered at the bureau within 48 hours of disbursement and are to be shared with other NLR hosting bureau within 24 hours of the receipt of the information via the synchronization process. This same process applies to closure payments made on these accounts. As is the case with CPA data, payment profile information for longer term agreements is to be provided on a monthly basis to hosting bureaux in the agreed format.

This reciprocity agreement essentially allows those entities submitting NLR payment profile information to the NLR to also utilize Credit Providers Association (CPA) payment profile information when conducting credit assessments. CPA members would enjoy the same benefit in that they would be able to view the NLR data on the same basis.

The functions of the MFRC (Micro Finance Regulatory Council) were taken over by the National Credit Regulator (NCR), a legislative body responsible for the governance of the National Credit Act and all related functions. These included the monitoring of data quality and submissions associated with the National Loans Register. In response to this change, the NCR established the National Loans Register Management Committee with a mandate to oversee the day to day management of the NLR, ensure future sustainability, and in particular, to address the deteriorating data quality within the NLR.

The NLR Management committee has equal representation from both the Credit Providers Association (CPA) and Micro Finance South Africa (MFSA), as well as a representative from the NCR. It became clear that a full time resource was required to focus on the NLR and in 2009 the CPA appointed such a staff member to assist with NLR data management in conjunction with CPA responsibilities.

In 2010, the MFSA (Micro Finance South Africa) joined the CPA, thereby making all their members who provide data to the NLR also members of the CPA. 

Since the establishment of the NLRMC, the appointment of a dedicated staff member and the MFSA joining the CPA, substantial progress has been made in improving data submissions, data quality and the implementation of extensive processes related to managing the NLR data set. The hosting of NLR data has also been broadened to include Compuscan as the third NLR Hosting bureau along with TransUnion and Experian.

2011 Promises to be a year in which the NLR as a dataset moves closer to the end goal of amalgamation with the CPA data set into a common single credit data set accessible by all participating credit providers. The active support and participation of all stake holders will greatly enhance progress towards our ultimate goal and we thus encourage members to raise issues of concern or indeed provide constructive input in the process.

Please feel free to raise any NLR Data related issues, suggestions or queries with Carike Gerber at carikeg@cpa.org.za or Gavin Long glong@cpa.org.za