The Bank of Ghana is considering stepping in to assist the only licensed credit reference bureau XDS Data secure information on borrowers from the various banks. The lack of that information to enable banks fairly estimate the credit worthiness of a borrower is one of the main reasons why they tend to generally slap relatively high interest charges on loans. The relatively high default rate also as a result of the inability to distinguish between a good borrower and a bad one tends to also add to the cost of borrowing as all lenders are made to contribute to paying off the loans of bad debtors. XDS Data has not been able to do much since it was licensed two years ago because most of the banks cannot trust who else would get the information they release. The Governor of Bank of Ghana Kwesi Amissah-Arthur is however hoping the banks will be willing to provide the data information if the Central Bank is involved. “It will be a good idea for the central bank to participate in the company that gathers all the information from the banks and then pass it on to the bureaus that request information from this. Now if the central bank and the other banks are involved in setting up a central data collection point, then they know that there is data integrity,” he said. Meanwhile two applications are currently pending before the bank for approval. Source: Joy Business/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana