Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL) and TransUnion today announced the launch of CIBIL Mortgage Check - India’s first repository of mortgage information. CIBIL and TransUnion, in consultation with the National Housing Bank (NHB) and other leading industry institutions, developed the country’s first centralised nationwide database of mortgage information that will help banks and financial institutions share and access mortgage information, exercise stronger due diligence, and reduce fraudulent transactions.
With the increase of fraudulent activities in the housing sector such as fake and forged sales deeds, multiple copies of sales deeds, sale deeds of fictitious property and multiple financing, CIBIL Mortgage Check will enable more informed decisions to be made in assessing new mortgage applications as well as better portfolio management. The comprehensive reference database will contain information on properties which owners have availed loans; summaries of those loans, including the open and close dates; and comprehensive mortgage information on those properties.
Arun Thukral, Managing Director, CIBIL, said: “Banks and financial institutions have been reporting rising cases of fraudulent transactions in the housing sector. Realizing the urgent requirement of an industry-wide system for fraud control, the National Housing Bank (NHB) advised CIBIL to develop an exhaustive repository of information on mortgage that will help contain defaults and fraudulent transactions by enabling informed decisions. In many cases, fraudsters avail multiple loans on an already mortgaged property, making it difficult for lenders to keep track of such activities/people. This solution will serve as a due diligence tool for credit grantors before establishing business relationship with new customers. As more and more banks start reporting mortgage data to CIBIL, the data base will become a more robust and invaluable tool going forward for the industry.”