2.5.3. Novelties Introduced by the New Credit Reference System

Once the BAT Risk Center becomes fully operational and the respective laws and regulations take effect, an efficient risk management will have been achieved that will be beneficial for the banks and other financial institutions as well as service providing organizations, large retail organizations with activities of commercial claims and households.

When all the information to be included in the system start to be collected and shared, real and legal persons' all transactions that qualify as debt will be consolidated at the BAT Risk Center (KKB), and this information will be directly accessible to the member organizations of the Risk Center. Meanwhile, non‑members that have signed contracts to exchange information will be able to have access to the information at the BAT Risk Center (KKB) upon their clients' approval. The information will entail not only the positive, but also the negative information about the clients.

Thus, the BAT Risk Center (KKB) will assume a significant role in helping credit institutions and other organizations detect and accurately estimate client risks and make sound decisions regarding their economic activities.

The new credit reference system will provide the following:

• A more detailed monitoring of the loan history of real and legal persons will be facilitated by including also the "positive information" such as the loans extended, paid in the due date and closed since early-2007 alongside the information on cheques paid on due date.
• One year after the date that the BAT Risk Center becomes operational and starts obtaining retrospective positive information, the practice of monitoring the negative personal loans and credit card debtors will be terminated. Thus, those persons with records of trivial amounts of debts like TL 1 or TL 5 will not be recorded negatively. Loans completely repaid on due date by these persons will be taken into account so that erroneous risk assessments will be eliminated.
• Based on the notification periods, the information on the number of defaults in credit re-payments besides the number and sum of the extended and closed loans will be disclosed to help credit institutions to assess the payment habits and credit requirements of the firms in detail.
• Based on the notification periods, information on protested bills as well as on the bills collected in due time by the banks will also be disclosed.
• Commercial claims of the firms and invoiced debts to service providing institutions can be received by the Risk Center and shared with credit institutions as per the contracts to be signed with these institutions. This will allow a better estimation of the credibility of households and firms as their debts to institutions other than banks and other financial institutions will have been taken into account.
• In the forward sales of goods and services that they   provide, the non‑members of the Risk Center will have access to their clients' information as per the contracts that they can sign with the Risk Center at the Risk Center and upon the consent of their clients. This will help spread the concept of risk perception in the market and facilitate a more effective risk management.
• Real persons will have access to their own information at the Risk Center free of charge, once each year. Thus, persons will be able to monitor their risks and the risk perception will be improved.
• In addition to traditional mailing, applications for access to and sharing of the information at the Risk Center can be made through alternative channels like e-mail, ATM, call centers and the internet. This will save time in accessing information.