Credit providers can apply as a Subscribed Member, either Type One Member or Type Two Member depending on your business nature, to participate in the Credit Reference Platform (CRP).
| Type of Membership | Description |
| Type One Member | An authorized institution or a subsidiary of an authorized institution within the meaning of section 2 of the Banking Ordinance (Cap. 155 of the Laws of Hong Kong); |
| Type Two Member | A money lender under Money Lenders Ordinance (Cap. 163 of the Laws of Hong Kong) or a person whose business (whether or not the person carries on any other business) is that of providing finance for the acquisition of goods by way of leasing or hire purchase. |
Applicants should send an e-mail to the Business Operator at mcra.application@hkab.hk, to request for a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and an application form in order to apply for the membership.
The Business Operator will provide the NDA and application form to the applicant by e-mail within 3 working days of receiving the request e-mail.
Applicants shall then submit the following documents in accordance with the file formats and file naming convention (as set out below) for review and verification by e-mail to mcra.application@hkab.hk at their own cost:
- NDA for the Credit Data Smart (to be signed by Authorised Signatory to represent the applying credit provider)
- Application Form
- Acceptable file formats include .docx/.pdf
- File naming convention: “application_{applicant name}.{fileFormat}”, case-insensitive
- Supporting documents
Upon receipt of an application, the Business Operator will send an acknowledgement e-mail to the applicant stating the application case number within 2 working days. This acknowledgement mechanism of the Business Operator will apply to all application and onboarding processes for all types of applicants.
Unclear requests may cause a delay in processing.
The required supporting documents and relevant details for each membership type are provided below:
Authorized institutions or subsidiaries of authorized institutions can apply as a Type One Member to participate in the CRP.
The following supporting documents would be required during the Type One Membership application process:
- Copy of Banking License
- Acceptable file formats include .doc/.docx/.png/.jpg/.jpeg/.pdf
- File naming convention: “banking-license_{applicant name}.{fileFormat}”, case-insensitive
- Referral letter* (if applicable)
- Acceptable file formats include .doc/.docx/.png/.jpg/.jpeg/.pdf
- File naming convention: “referral-letter_{applicant name}.{fileFormat}”, case-insensitive
| * The referral letter is a simple declaration by the parent bank that the applicant is a subsidiary of the parent bank. The applicant should also submit the banking license of the parent bank together with the referral letter. |
Licensed money lenders and persons who provide finance for the acquisition of goods by way of leasing or hire-purchase can apply as a Type Two Member to participate in the CRP.
The following supporting documents would be required for the Type Two Membership application process:
- Money Lender License*
- Acceptable file formats include .doc/.docx/.pdf/.jpg/.jpeg
- File naming convention: “money-lender-license_{applicant name}.{fileFormat}”, case-insensitive
- Independent Assessment Interim Report#
- Acceptable file formats include .docx/.pdf
- File naming convention: “independent-assessment-interim-report_{applicant name}.{fileFormat}”, case-insensitive
- Independent Assessment Fulfilment Matrix
- Acceptable file formats include .docx/.pdf
- File naming convention: “independent-assessment-fulfilment-matrix_{applicant name}.{fileFormat}”, case-insensitive
|
*If the applicant’s license is being renewed, the applicant may submit its existing license and submit the renewed license within a given grace period. #An independent assessment is required. Please refer to the Onboarding Criteria and Eligibility of Independent Assessor Criteria here. |
The application form and NDA are provided upon written request to mcra.application@hkab.hk with the suggested template as follows:
|
Subject: [MCRA] Request for Application Form - [Type One / Type Two] Member Dear Business Operator team, We, [institution name], would like to apply for a CRP Membership as a [Type One / Type Two] Member. To proceed with the application process, we would like to request the application form for [Type One / Type Two] Member and non-disclosure agreement. Information of our contact person is as follows: Name: [name] Title: [post title] Mobile: [mobile] E-mail: [email address] |
The request for application form will be processed in 3 working days upon receipt. Unclear requests may cause a delay in processing.
The full list of FAQs is provided here.
Type One Member is a Subscribed Member which is an authorized institution or a subsidiary of an authorized institution within the meaning of section 2 of the Banking Ordinance (Cap. 155 of the Laws of Hong Kong);
Type Two Member is a Subscribed Member which is a money lender under Money Lenders Ordinance (Cap. 163 of the Laws of Hong Kong), or a person whose business (whether or not the person carries on any other business) is that of providing finance for the acquisition of goods by way of leasing or hire purchase.
All authorized institutions that are involved in the provision of consumer credit are required by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to participate in the CRP.
Licensed money lenders are strongly recommended to participate in the Credit Data Smart since a fully-fledged consumer credit database will be beneficial to both consumers and Subscribed Members.
Application is open to licensed money lenders.
However, a Selected CRA shall not provide any consumer credit reference service involving the use of the Consumer Credit Data on the CRP to any credit provider other than the Subscribed Members under “Credit Data Smart”. Therefore, if licensed money lenders wish to have a seamless transition to the CRP and continue to use the Consumer Credit Reference Service provided by any of the Selected CRAs, they should be onboarded to the CRP as soon as practicable.
A Type Two Membership applicant should submit an independent assessment report to demonstrate its fulfilment of the onboarding criteria.
For general enquiries and complaints, please contact the Business Operator at:
- Email: mcra.enquiry@hkab.hk
- Operating hours: 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Hong Kong time, Monday to Friday except for Hong Kong public holidays and adverse weather)