The structure and functioning of the Indian economy has witnessed many changes with time. With economic development setting in, there have been profound changes in the use as well as extension of credit.

While there has been improvement in credit facilities and increase in modes of credit, another factor which has also risen at par with these is risk. This means that rising credit opportunities also necessitates the need of protection from risk and defaults.

An effective way to hedge credit risk is to obtain accurate information on customers and their credibility. Such information would allow lenders to pre assess the repayment capacity and intention of the borrower before extending credit to him.

If each bank/financial institution individually strives to attain credit details of all customers, they would be unable to gather exhaustive information about all.

Thus in order to have exhaustive information, the need arises for a central repository of information. In India, this data bank bearing credit information about all borrowers is the Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL).

An associate member of the Indian Banks' Association, CIBIL provides reports which are four dimensional that is

a) independent

b) centralized

c) comprehensive

d) reliable