Amir Khan

Financial data provider Karandaaz Pakistan has signed a data sharing agreement with TASDEEQ, a private credit bureau operating in Pakistan, to include enterprise credit information for more than 70 sub-sectors in the country in its data portal. The lending data will also be disaggregated by geography at the provincial, district and city levels, and categorised by type of credit providers, according to a media statement, reports WealthPK.

Speaking about the partnership and what data access at this scale will mean for Pakistan, Waqas ul Hasan, the Chief Executive Officer of Karandaaz, said, “Karandaaz’s data portal is a state-of-the-art platform through which information on financial inclusion, and macro and micro economic indicators could be obtained, layered, analysed, and shared with relative ease. “We are constantly adding to the depth and breadth of the data points on this portal and our partnership with TASDEEQ is a testament to these efforts.

This will be the first time that a private credit bureau in Pakistan will share aggregated information on a wide array of credit indicators on a publicly accessible data portal. I am very pleased with this partnership and the countless possibilities it opens up for researchers, academics, financial institutions and policy makers.”

Karandaaz’s interactive data portal collates and aggregates financial and economic data for Pakistan from multiple publicly available sources, including but not limited to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reports, several financial inclusion surveys, the Economic Survey of Pakistan, population census, labour force surveys, etc. The portal provides stakeholders, including policymakers, private sector and public sector institutions and researchers and students, with a wide range of data that can be layered and customised for analysis.

As a private credit bureau licensed by SBP, TASDEEQ’s core business is collecting credit data from a wide range of financial service providers. TASDEEQ’s Chief Executive Officer Mumtaz Syed said, “Our aim is to equip the financial industry within Pakistan with data and insights, and promote financial inclusion. Our partnership with Karandaaz exemplifies that. TASDEEQ is creating an ecosystem to address issues in access to finance by potential borrowers and lenders by leveraging financial institutions data, utility data and alternate data.”

Talking about the need to improve access to information in Pakistan, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Chairperson of Karandaaz, said, "It is important to realise that development of emerging markets is contingent on the availability of information to support informed decision making and building investor confidence in underdeveloped markets. There is a strong need for the adoption of open data practices and to strengthen the right to information, which is already available in our laws but not always practiced with the same spirit.

Greater access to data will promote greater transparency and accountability in the government and private sector while supporting development outcomes. This partnership between TASDEEQ and Karandaaz is the blueprint for a way forward not only because of public accessibility of vital data but also because data collection is a cost-and time-intensive exercise and such agreements can drive those costs down."

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk