Credit History

Credit histories are generated by specialised organisations — credit history bureaus (CHBs) — based on the information about borrowers they receive from banks. Bureaus can also receive information from organisations in favour of which court decisions have been made on the collection of debts on housing and public utilities services, communication services, or from bailiffs, for example, on outstanding maintenance obligations.

Starting from 1 October 2019, the debt to income (DTI) ratio for individuals is calculated based on credit histories. If this indicator is too high for an individual, that is, his/her payments on loans by far exceed his/her income, banks may refuse to issue new loans. To do this, borrowers’ aggregate debt obligations, that is, the numerator in the DTI calculation formula, are calculated on the basis of information from their credit histories.

A credit history covers 10 years, and this period is counted from the moment of any recent changes in the credit history (for example, changes in passport data, etc.).

The credit histories of both legal and natural persons comprise information on their loans with amounts and terms of their repayment, information on current and overdue outstanding amounts, in a word — on payment discipline, and bankruptcy procedures. This information is transmitted only with the consent of the subject of the credit history.

The credit histories of individuals (including individual entrepreneurs) also have an informational part that banks or MFOs can obtain without the consent of the individual applying for a loan. The informational part contains data on loans issued or refusals to provide them, on surety agreements, and the details of overdue loans (default on two or more consecutive payments within 120 days).

As a rule, credit histories are stored in several bureaus. Therefore, banks and MFOs decide at their own discretion to which bureaus (one or more) they send information about their borrowers.

In order to obtain one’s credit history, one first needs to know in which CHB it is stored. For this, one must send an enquiry to the Central Catalogue of Credit Histories (CCCH) of the Bank of Russia. This may be done remotely via the State Services Portal. This service is called ‘Information on the CHB which Stores the Credit History of the Credit History Subject’ and is available in the ‘Taxes and Finance’ section.

Knowing in which CHB the credit history is kept, the borrower can request it at any time. This can be done for free twice per year. Users of the State Services Portal with confirmed accounts can do this online, through the bureau’s websites.

One can also obtain information from the CCCH from any bank, microfinance organisation and any credit history bureau.