CRIF NM Credit Assurance, one of two entities with a credit bureau licence in Jamaica, announced on Friday an agreement with Scotiabank Jamaica that will make it an official provider of credit reports to that financial institution.

It follows a similar announcement by Creditinfo Jamaica, the other credit bureau on the island.

According to CRIF, with the agreement now in place, Scotiabank will be able to obtain credit information on its customers through the CRIF NM Credit Reporting System.

The agreement was signed by Monique French, senior vice president of credit risk management at Scotiabank and CRIF NM CEO Terrence Cooper, accompanied by Lennox Elvy, Scotiabank’s director of retail Risk and CRIF NM chief operating officer, Robert Gordon.

“Scotiabank is honoured to play a part in the roll-out of credit bureau reporting in Jamaica, a significant development in our local banking industry. Scotiabank will go live and begin to use credit reporting in 2013,” French said at the ceremony held at Scotiabank’s headquarters in Kingston

“The impact of the credit report and credit scoring will evolve as we phase in their use in the various parts of our business activities over the next 24 months, and apply this new tool to the benefit of our customers,” she added.

Cooper lauded Scotiabank’s management team and their IT resources for their work towards the project.

“We recognise Scotiabank as one of the leading financial institutions in the country and we applaud them in taking this groundbreaking step as one of the first institutions to begin using full-file credit reports. This is the dawn of a new era in the Jamaican retail finance sector,” he said.

Immediately after the signing ceremony, Scotia was able to demonstrate the system by pulling its first full-file credit report in Jamaica with a ‘live look-up’ of the credit information of customer Lavern McFarlane, who was also on hand, CRIF said.

McFarlane had to first sign a consent form allowing the release of her credit information, as mandated by the Credit Reporting Act 2010.