After the recent High Court ruling, CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd (CTOS) clarified that it is business as usual for the agency as the ruling did not bar it from providing credit reports to its customers and subscribers. The High Court ruling said that CTOS has no power to formulate credit scores, but the company says that the ruling is unrelated to the lawsuit against them.
Eric Hamburger Barraza, Group CEO of CTOS Digital Sdn Bhd (CDS) said this is why the agency will be filing the appeal to fight against the High Court ruling. At the same time, he shared that CTOS, as a registered agency under the Ministry of Finance’s Registrar Office of Credit Reporting Agencies, has been following all the necessary steps in ensuring the validity of the data, and is audited yearly as part of the license renewal process.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, the agency reiterated that they are allowed to provide credit scoring as the CTOS credit score is an approved product by the Registrar’s Office and permitted under the Credit Reporting Agency Act (CRAA) 2010.
CTOS also shared that since 2010, the company has won 12 similar defamation cases, and this is the first loss by the agency against a plaintiff. The agency also shared that 5 more such cases are pending in the pipeline.
The agency stands behind the data that they collected and confirmed the data were correct, as they have done their due diligence – including validating the data by talking to the resort owner as well as the source of the errant bill that caused the owner’s credit score to fall. They are confident that they will win the appeal process.
For now, CTOS will continue to operate as usual in creating credit reports and collecting information for those reports in line with the act. According to them, they are committed to maintaining their integrity and will continue to comply with the standards set under the CRAA and continue its role as a credit score provider.
