The Creditinfo Chronicle
Creditinfo Guyana provides service to prevent identity theft
It was only a few weeks ago that a warrant was issued for the arrest of a 47-year-old woman who, posing as one of Guyana’s local beauty queens, Olive Gopaul, was able to fraudulently obtain money from several prominent business entities.
But members of Guyana’s only credit bureau—Creditinfo, are contending that such an unfortunate situation could have been prevented in just one minute.
Read more here: http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/02/09/creditinfo-provides-service-to-prevent-identity-theft-within-seconds/
Increasing Financial Inclusion in West Africa – VoLo and Creditinfo Joint Venture. AfDB involved.
Creditinfo and VoLo Africa are pleased to announce their agreement to merge their credit bureau operations and establish a joint venture (JV), Creditinfo VoLo Africa, with the objective of working together in West Africa, in the area of credit bureaus, risk management and biometric information.
The initial intention of the JV is to set up operations in Gambia and Senegal, with Creditinfo Cape Verde also becoming part of the JV. An additional 7 countries are also planned upon receipt of regulatory clearance and approval.
The partnership brings together the Creditinfo experience of developing credit bureaus and risk management solutions in developing markets such as Tanzania, with the VoLo experience of biometrics and in depth experience of West Africa financial services.
Both organisations will actively be involved in steering the future of the business in Africa, bringing structure and strategic direction with the aim of increasing the stability of the African financial system and stimulating investment and financial inclusion, to create an environment in which the African banks can provide the required facilities for all borrowers, ranging from small enterprises and micro enterprises.
25th Annual Meeting of “the Club” for Banks and Credit Institutions from Africa
Several leaders of banks and credit institutions from Africa met in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on 6th & 7th February 2014 for the Annual Meeting of the Club des Dirigeants des Banques et Institutions de Crédit d’Afrique (the Club). The meeting marked the 25th anniversary of the Club.
At the opening session, the Prime Minister, Mr. Daniel Kablan Duncan voiced his pleasure at the Club choosing to meet in the Ivorian economic capital.Creditinfo were equally pleased to be invited to deliver a presentation advising on the benefits of establishing a Credit Bureau and how the banks and credit institutions should be prepared for the arrival of a central risk.
During his welcome, Mr. Duncan advised that the growth dynamics of African states should be accompanied by the African banking sector. In this sense, he also spoke of the banking sector supporting the financing of major infrastructure projects likely to consolidate the development of states.
Selling is Simple
That is according to Alex Lazarov, CEO of Creditinfo Solutions. Alex shared a presentation with Creditinfo employees on how sales can be changed from what many deem to be a difficult task into something quite enjoyable. He spoke about the basics and then got into the nitty gritty of working effectively with your customers and the “What’s in it for me” concept.
You can watch the presentation video he
re: Vimeo
Alex can be reached at:
Email: a.lazarov@creditinfosolutions.com
Skype: alexander.lazarov3
Linked In: ca.linkedin.com/pub/alexander-lazarov/41/784/1b2
Alex’s Bio
Alex has over 15 years of management experience internationally. Over the last 10 years he specialized in the field of Credit Risk Management with careers at Toronto Dominion Bank and Bank of America at the VP level. Some of his responsibilities included managing banking operations, creation and implementation of loss prevention strategies, and portfolio risk/reward analyses. In August 2012 Alex became the CEO of Creditinfo Solutions. In this role he is responsible for the overall activities of the company, for the support of numerous clients worldwide, and for the project delivery and product development of various solutions in the realm of Credit Bureaus and Risk Management. He is also a certified Advanced SAS Programmer and Predictive Modeler, has degrees in IT and Management, and enjoys playing chess.
Creditinfo announces Iceland’s Strongest Companies of 2013
Creditinfo Iceland has recently published “Iceland‘s Strongest Companies 2013”.
Creditinfo annually carries out detailed analysis, highlighting Icelandic companies that have achieved top marks for their strength and stability in the market place. Of the 33,000 publicly and privately owned companies registered in the Icelandic Company Directory, only 462 (1.4%) of these organizations passed the conditions, set out by Creditinfo, in order to receive the coveted award of being one of ‘Iceland’s Strongest Companies’.
Creditinfo believes that in smaller economies, it is more important to assess a company’s strength through the stability of their operational performance over time, as opposed to reviewing only one fiscal year. This long-term assessment prevents the inclusion of companies that cannot withstand market fluctuations, such as was the case for a number of businesses in the economic collapse of 2008.
Mr. Bjarni Benediktsson, Finance Minister – Iceland
Approximately 600 representatives from 225 companies attended an impressive and inspiring event on 13 February 2014 at the Hilton Nordica Hotel to celebrate and acknowledge the prestigious status of being named as one of Iceland’s strongest companies. The awards were given in three categories based on Total Assets: 80-200 ISK millions, 200-1,000 ISK millions and 1,000+ ISK millions. (Approx. 0.5 – 1 millions euros, 1 million to 6.5 million euros and 6.5 million euros plus). Icelandic Finance Minister, Mr. Bjarni Benediktsson (pictured) and Creditinfo Iceland‘s CEO, Mr. Hákon Stefánsson were pleased to present the awards to the leading organisations during the ceremony. Continue reading »
Creditinfo Lithuania welcomed Dakar rally racer
Annual financial results presentation at Creditinfo Lithuania was marked by famous rally racer Benediktas Vanagas visit.
Less than a month before Benediktas successfully participated in Dakar rally and finished it in high 35 position. It was second Dakar rally in his career. During the visit he told about his career in sports, physical preparations for Dakar, daily routines, his business and other issues.
Benediktas is one of the most experienced sport car pilots in the Baltic countries. Throughout his career he tried completely different kind of sport cars. Benediktas started in circuit racing, then he went to the car rally.
This is how we looked together.
Malta Team Building Activity – Combat Archery!!
Creditinfo Malta last month organized a fun combat archery session as a team building activity.
This experience gave the employees the chance to be split into different groups and work together to carry out the various missions assigned.
This also gave the opportunity to aim and shoot, with bow and arrow, at anyone. Needless to say the most popular target was Simon (CEO)…
Players of the month: Vytautas Pociūnas and Team Lithuania
Individual Player
Congratulations to Vytautas Pociūnas, Sales Manager, Creditinfo Lithuania, who entered the “Millionaire’s Club” after reaching one million litas sales through his successful career at the company.
Vytautas has worked at Creditinfo for four years. He is 4th Creditinfo Lithuania employee who achieved one million litas sales.
Among his clients are the biggest Lithuanian brewery Švyturys-Utenos alus (belongs to Carlsberg), shipyard company Vakarų laivų gamyklos grupė which belongs to BLRT Grupp concern, and other well known companies in Lithuania.
Team Player
Congratulations everyone at Creditinfo Lithuania for:
- Being the best bloggers on the intranet
- Regularly supporting and promoting CI Lithuania through not only the usual marketing methods but also by entering various competitions whether it be football, best employer of the year (I love my Creditinfo), Miss Office Lithuania etc
- Great team spirit – shown by the various team building activities they participate in each month from sports contests, golfing days, dressing up is a favourite and there is usually a beer or cocktail involved too. You can watch a video of their antics (which was created for I love my Creditinfo) – click here to download and watch.
- And they still find the time to generate a lot of sales and profit for the business!
Keep up the great work guys!
Enterprise Risk Management
Creditinfo Jamaica‘s CEO, Megan Deane, today shared insights into how to manage Enterprise Risk.
According to Wikipedia:
Enterprise risk management (ERM) in business includes the methods and processes used by organizations to manage risks and seize opportunities related to the achievement of their objectives. ERM provides a framework for risk management, which typically involves identifying particular events or circumstances relevant to the organization’s objectives (risks and opportunities), assessing them in terms of likelihood and magnitude of impact, determining a response strategy, and monitoring progress. By identifying and proactively addressing risks and opportunities, business enterprises protect and create value for their stakeholders, including owners, employees, customers, regulators, and society overall. (ERM)
You can view Megan’s presentation here: EnterpriseRiskMgmt_CIJ_AcademyMDeaneFebruary2014
You can watch Megan’s presentation video here: Vimeo
Megan can be reached at:
Email: mdeane@creditinfojamaica.com
Linked In: m.linkedin.com/pub/megan-deane/1b/b98/904
Website: http://www.creditinfojamaica.com/
Megan’s Bio
Megan Deane is a highly qualified professional with over 20 years of experience in the private and public financial services sectors in Jamaica. She has served previously as a Technical Advisor to the Houses of Parliament; the Deputy Managing Director of the EXIM Bank of Jamaica; Director of Investments and Privatisations with the National Investment Bank of Jamaica and as Manager for Business & Advisory Services at Trafalgar Development Bank. A Canadian Commonwealth Scholar with an MBA from the University of Ottawa and a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in Finance at Boston University, Megan is an honours graduate of the University of the West Indies with a BSc. in Management Studies. She was identified as being eminently qualified to lead the team at Creditinfo Jamaica Limited and establish Jamaica’s first licenced Credit Bureau. Megan has been with the company since December 2011.
Creditinfo Tanzania hosts the inaugural Credit Training Programme delivered by Creditinfo Academy
The training covered many areas including the use and understanding of credit bureau data, how credit scoring works and scorecard development. Most sessions were interactive to provide active involvement and help learning.
Feedback from participants was excellent. Mr. Robert Kimaro, an attendee from CRDB commented “I learnt a lot from the day about credit bureaus and the services and systems that they use and how these can assist my bank make smarter lending decisions, including how to grade the borrowers by using Creditinfo’s credit score, Creditinfo Predictor.”
The course was led by Mr. Paul Randall, an international industry expert with more than 27 years’ experience in credit risk management. Mr. Randall’s delivery style includes a number of audience participation techniques to not only engage the attendees but to also create more interesting and often unexpected content and network connections that are rarely achieved at traditional seminars. Mr. Randall facilitated numerous tasks and activity sessions to reinforce the learning points covered.
Andrew Carter, CEO of Creditinfo Tanzania said “We are really lucky to have an international expert of Paul Randall’s caliber in Tanzania to lead these customer courses. His experience and knowledge from growing international markets is extensive and Tanzania banks and MFI’s we have lots to learn from him.”
Creditinfo Academy is due to be a regular feature on the calendar with Creditinfo Tanzania as the new credit bureau further expands its operations.
Contact Creditinfo Tanzania at CITinfo@creditinfo.com .
Change Management
Creditinfo Academy were very pleased to welcome Mr. Paul Gauci today.
Paul delivered an inspirational presentation on “Change Management”. Paul is a training and development professional from Malta who lectures regularly at the University of Malta and who this year, also celebrates 34 years as Head of Training & Development at the Bank of Valletta.
You can view his presentation here: Enabling Growth through Change creditinfo
You can watch his presentation video here: Vimeo
Paul can be contacted via http://about.me/paulgauci
Also, vvia Linked In mt.linkedin.com/pub/paul-gauci/a/197/63b
Twitter www.twitter.com/GauciPaul
Facebook: www.facebook.com/paulmgauci62
More about Azerbaijan
As you may remember, in November, we told you that we were the finalists, along with CRIF, for a tender to become the operator of the First Credit Bureau in Azerbaijan.
Before selecting the winner, the Executive Committee wanted to clarify a few issues relating to the hardware of each organisation. In December, Tomáš Tichý,Radek Bittner, Paul Randall and Reynir gave a presentation in Baku. According to Paul his presentation was fantastic and Reynir’s was OK! (how cheeky!).
Anyway, the Committee now want to visit both organisations, so at the end of January they will be going to IBCH in Kiev and to CRIF HQ in Bologna. Afterwhich they will advise who will receive the tender. Watch this space….
On a side note, we bumped into William Haigh as we were leaving the IFC office.
We won the tender in Afghanistan
As you may already know, we won the tender for developing the Public Credit Registry (PCR) system for Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) to enhance access to financial resources and loan facilities in the country. Reynir signed the contract for the project in Kabul in February 2013.
Creditinfo Academy visits Tanzania
Working through a case study
Creditinfo Tanzania, the first licenced credit bureau in Tanzania, provided yet another first of its type for the country, a “Credit” themed training programme delivered by Creditinfo Academy. The training was held at the prestigious Serena Hotel in Dar es Salam on 4th and 5th February 2014.
The training covered many areas including the use and understanding of credit bureau data, how credit scoring works and scorecard development. Most sessions were interactive to provide active involvement and help learning. Continue reading »
Children Christmas at Creditinfo Lithuania
Creditinfo Lithuania held a Christmas party for employees‘ children entertained by Santa Claus and Snowmaiden visit. It is planned to make such events for our staff children each year.
Several years ago our team had only a few children while one can notice that currently we have a full kindergarten here. We are pleased to see that growing new generation will be able to replace ourselves at Creditinfo in the future.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all Creditinfo families!
