Discussion on the development and supervision of China’s credit investigation market

1, the protection of personal information in the context of big data. The participants pointed out that “the current boundaries between big data companies and credit investigation companies have been blurred, personal information protection is facing great problems, and the supervision of credit investigation industry is facing challenges”, and asked the experts’ views on this. Experts stressed that no matter what kind of company, as long as it is engaged in credit reporting business, it should be regulated to ensure that there is no regulatory vacuum. Credit bureaus should ensure the transparency of personal information and protect consumers’ legitimate rights such as the right to consent, the right to know, and the right to dissent. In particular, experts pointed out that since China does not have a special Personal Data Protection Law, the supervision of the credit investigation industry should ensure that personal information is effectively protected, and some market-oriented credit investigation agencies use data obtained from various sources to investigate individuals, and special attention needs to be paid to the protection of individuals’ legitimate rights and interests in the entire process.
2.  About the governance structure of credit bureaus. Participants discussed the issue of “how to ensure the independent third party status of credit investigation institutions”. Experts believe that the governance structure of credit bureaus is essential to ensure sustainable access to high-quality services for users, and recommend that national regulators should develop appropriate provisions for their specific national circumstances. If a credit bureau is also an information user, it should focus on whether it can provide services to competitors fairly and impartially. We can learn from the experience of countries such as the United Kingdom, where independent directors will be installed on the board of directors of credit investigation agencies to supervise business compliance and meet the requirements of various regulations such as personal data protection.