Homegrown credit bureau CIBI Information Inc. is encouraging Filipinos to consider taking loans, especially for business purposes, saying that loans are not bad if managed properly.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion on Monday, Oct. 20, CIBI chief product, partnership, and innovation officer Jasmine Alansalon-Gonzales said that taking on debt is not necessarily a bad thing, emphasizing that its impact depends on how it is managed and on the support provided by lenders.

Gonzales added that taking out a loan is a shared responsibility between the lender and the borrower.

“Financial inclusion comes with financial knowledge and responsibility on how you should manage the business,” she said.

Gonzales highlighted that the buy now, pay later (BNPL) scheme is a good way to help young people learn how to manage their finances and budget effectively.

She emphasized that the Covid-19 pandemic helped Filipinos indirectly understand that “debt is not bad,” stressing that it depends on how it is managed and budgeted.

Gonzales also explained that CIBI—the credit bureau that provides banks with data sourced from the state-run Credit Information Corp. (CIC) through CTVI, a wholly owned subsidiary of CIBI—plays an important role in showing whether a customer has existing loans with other banks. She noted that CIBI has a special access level called the “Advanced Tier.”

This Advanced Tier refers to CIBI’s exclusive access to CIC’s raw data files. Having this raw data allows CIBI, combined with its analytics, to develop more effective products and services, strengthening its capacity to provide insights to lenders.

“All of those data, the bank gives it to CIC. Now that CIC authorized CTVI to process it, so that CIBI can use it to create a product—one product is a credit report,” she explained.

“That’s really the core of the bureau, information for everyone to access—to know your credit exposure. And not just exposure, but how you repay,” she added.

Gonzales said that CIBI is key to understanding how responsible an individual is, noting that part of this involves managing personal credit. Individuals can access their credit score through the Lista app.

“Given the use of the bureau by the fintechs now, it really helped them improve how people can access credit,” she added.

She also explained that CIBI uses algorithms and machine learning to provide banks with clear visibility of a borrower’s credit profile, enabling them to lend responsibly.

While there may be debate over the impact of taking out a single loan per month, the bureau ensures that such information is visible to lenders, noting that “you’re able to see [as the lender] the good and the bad, and lend to the good and not so on the bad.”

Pia Arellano, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of CIBI, echoed this view and encouraged trying the BNPL scheme, noting that performing well in that type of borrowing is a good first step toward obtaining a credit card.

“BNPL is very, very critical really for our economy because again, it really is the first entry towards financial inclusion,” she added.

Arellano emphasized that when it comes to credit scores, the most important thing is paying on time. It’s not necessary to always pay the full amount, she said, noting that even settling the minimum due is acceptable—as long as payments are made on time.

She highlighted that the organization’s massive transformative purpose (MTP) is to build a future where every Filipino has access to opportunities and no one is left behind, noting that financial inclusion continues to drive their efforts.

“We’re able to do that because we’re enabling the fintech people, the banks, and all these other lenders to open their doors—to be able to make smarter, more informed decisions because of the data that we’re giving them,” she added.

Harley Chan, chief of analytics at CIBI, shared that as of September 2025, CIC gathers submissions from all lenders and has records for approximately 68.4 million unique individuals.

He noted rapid growth from 2023 to 2025, driven by new fintechs entering the market and CIC’s improved lender compliance, with more lenders submitting data contributing to the rise in trade lines.

(Ricardo M. Austria)