Why Do CCRIS And CTOS Reports Matter So Much?

Whenever you apply for a loan or a credit card, financial institutions need to know that you can pay your debts.

To determine this, they refer to certain credit reports to indicate that you are in good financial standing in terms of debts.

Simply put: if you can pay your debts before, you are likely to be able to continue doing so!

Your credit reports (CCRIS and/or CTOS), alongside your income statements, will be your bank’s reference to decide whether to approve or reject your loans.

You can check your reports even before applying for a loan. So, what is this CCRIS and CTOS anyways? Let's check it out!

The Differences Between CCRIS And CTOS

	CCRIS
What it stands for	Central Credit Reference Information System
Description	A system created by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) which compiles credit information about a borrower or potential borrowers into standardised credit reports.
Governing authority	Bank Negara Malaysia
Information in the report	Your outstanding loans: e.g. home loans, personal loans, credit cards, overdrafts, etc. their corresponding outstanding amounts, credit limits, payment misses, details of legal cases, etc. Whether or not you have taken a joint loan or a loan in partnership with someone. Whether any of your accounts are “Special Attention Accounts” — usually Non-Performing Loans (NPL) or any account which is under the close supervision of financial authorities. *More on Special Attention Accounts later!
Information source	All banks and financial institutions
Reports available	Free report
Access methods	Visit Bank Negara or any of its branches A request for a report can be emailed
Span of credit history archived	12 months

	CTOS
What it stands for	CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd
Description	The role of CTOS as a credit reporting agency is to maintain a record of historical information about a person’s credit experience to assess the creditworthiness and repayment capabilities of individuals or business companies.
Governing authority	Privately-owned
Information in the report	Identity Verification Data such as your name, IC number, company registration number Directorships and Business Interests Your holdings in incorporated companies Legal Actions Against Whether there are any legal actions against you Whether you have filed for bankruptcy Trade Referees and Subject Comments You can place your own comments regarding the state of your financial health here.
Information source	Information on public domain: Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) Legal notices in newspapers Government gazettes & publications Malaysia Department of Insolvency (MDI) National Registration Department (NRD / JPN) Registrar of Societies (ROS) and information provided by creditors Creditors / litigators / trade referees Includes information voluntarily provided by subjects themselves
Reports available	Free basic report RM26.50 for a detailed MyCTOS Score Report*
Access methods	Available online
Span of credit history archived	Indefinitely

*Price as of March 2019

Note: Both reports provide factual data. They don’t form any opinions on your financial health or creditworthiness, which is up to your lender to decide. Nor do they do any blacklisting!

Sample CCRIS report

Sample CTOS report

What Is A Special Attention Account?

We've come to this 'mysterious' bit of information that you may find in your report! In certain cases, you might notice that one or a few of your loans are reported as a Special Attention Account in your CCRIS report.

A Special Attention Account refers to any outstanding credit facilities, like a loan or a bounced cheque, that is under close supervision by the participating financial institutions, particularly while the loan is being recovered or collected.

Under such situations, the financial institution will not be allowed to lend you money and you will need to contact them to find out what is really going on. Sometimes it might be a mistake by the bank, so it's best to clear it as soon as possible!

The Special Attention Account usually occurs for Non-Performing Loans (NPL), but they do happen for loans with special debt management schedules as negotiated by AKPK too.

How Do These Reports Affect Home Loan Applications?

If your reports indicate that you are not in debt and are in good financial standing, the banks are more likely to offer a higher Loan-to-Value (LTV) / Margin of Finance to you.

This means you can borrow a higher percentage of the cost of your home. Check out these handy tips on how you can go about keeping your reports healthy.

Conversely, if you don’t have a good financial standing, or if you do not have a credit score at all, banks may choose to reduce the loan margin or increase the interest rate of your loan.

The worst case scenario would be that the bank will reject your loan application completely. To that end, it’s important for you to pay all your existing debts on time.

If you don’t have any, apply for a basic credit card just to establish a credit score, but make sure that you pay off any outstanding amount in full and avoid carrying it over to the next month!