Public sector lender, Oriental Bank of Commerce has joined hands with credit information agency Experian Credit Information Company of India (Experian India) for receiving credit information of the customers of the bank.

The two entities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard. The MoU was signed by Mr V. R. Iyer, General Manager of OBC, and Mr Phil Nolan, Managing Director, Experian India, in the presence of Mr Nagesh Pydah, Chairman and Managing Director of OBC.

The event also had the presence of Mr S. C. Sinha and Mr V. Kannan, the executive directors of OBC.

Using this tie up, the bank will be able to leverage on the credit information provided by Experian on prospective borrowers and thus aid in credit risk management of the bank.

Speaking on the challenges Experian will have to face in the Indian market in terms of competion, Mr Pydah said, "You can start off with products ahead of what the competition already offers. You will have an advantage in providing the most contemporary credit report. Experian will certainly have lot of experiential inputs from OBC."

"As it (Experian) scales up and starts giving corporate credit reports, we will certainly look at such reports. Ultimately, as a credit bureau, it would certainly have corporate information that other agencies/credit bureaus may not have", Mr Pydah said.

"We are accepting 95 per cent of all data that banks give us. We are not rejecting that much data as existing bureaus do. When people are looking at an individual credit history, they may find additional data with us which could help influence the decision. We have also laid the report in such a way that it is much easier to interpret and also for consumers to understand", Mr Nolan said.