Many countries and international bodies such as the G-20, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are considering amending and issuing new standards in the area of consumer protection. Due to the growth and development of the financial sector in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) continues reviewing  these developments and issue appropriate regulatory directives to develop customer protection principles appropriately . SAMA aims at ensuring that the consumer who deals with the financial institutions is treated fairly, honestly and safely, and provided with all necessary tools to obtain financial services with ease and comfort. Among the most important rights are the credit rights which SAMA seeks to ensure to preserve in accordance with the Credit Information Law issued by the Council of Ministers and the Implanting Regulations.

In this context, SIMAH has developed Credit Principles to preserve consumers' rights; spread credit culture and be in line with National Strategy of Finance Literacy led by SAMA.

SIMAH's data, demographic information, financial and non-financial information, helps to extrapolate the behavior of the consumer based on sophisticated mathematical models using these data to support the lending decision and risk management.

SIMAH isn't allowed to interfere in the lending decision at all weather being positive or negative. So, 1^st Credit Principle stresses neutrality of SIMAH's relationship with all parties.

There shall be no discrimination in the process of collecting and sharing credit information. Thus, 2^nd Credit Principle accentuates SIMAH's integrity to be enhanced both internally and externally.

Aside from a general awareness of the existence of credit reporting systems, it can be critical to inform data subjects that information from those systems was used to make adverse decisions about the subject.  It is impossible for databases containing thousands, if not millions, of files from numerous sources, public and private, to maintain current accurate information about a population that may have similar or identical identifiers, who do not use their personal identifiers in a consistent manner in all their interactions, who change identifiers over time (e.g., by getting married), and who move frequently.  If erroneous data from those systems is used to made adverse decisions about individuals or companies, and the subject is not notified of the source of the data that led to the adverse decision, the subject will have no opportunity to correct the misinformation.  As a result, the subject will continue to face rejections based on incorrect credit information system data.  Not only is that unfair to the subject, it cast doubts on the operation of the system.  It also means that users of the system will continue to be provided inaccurate data that will lead to incorrect risk assessments. Thus, 3^rd Credit Principle tackles disclosure and transparency.

4^th Credit Principle sheds more light on credit culture. SIMAH shall carry out ongoing educational programs to state clearly its roles, obligations, its members' responsibilities and raise all consumers knowledge of their rights.

Since 2002, the idea of the black list was over where it has been replaced by the consumer's credit behaviors. Such behaviors are manifested on the credit reports by reflecting credit limits; maturity; DBR etc. Thus, 5^th Credit Principle requires SIMAH to trace credit behaviors and maintain them properly.  While the accuracy of information reported is an important value, credit information systems should be afforded legal protection sufficient to encourage their activities without eliminating incentives to maintain high levels of accuracy.  There are a number of potential legal impediments to the development of credit information systems.  One of the most significant is the existence of libel laws, laws that permit legal actions based on false publications that damage a person's reputation. These are in place by having the Credit Information Law and its Implementing Regulations. The 6^th Credit Principle requires SIMAH to maintain high standards of accuracy, potential exposure to libel actions -- even as a result of inadvertent mistakes.

Subjects of information in credit information systems (SIMATI or SIMAT) should be able to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information and mechanisms should exist to have such disputes investigated and have errors corrected.  It is of limited value to simply make data subjects aware that erroneous information from a credit information service served as the basis for an adverse action concerning them.  In order to make that information useful, there must be mechanisms in place, either voluntary or mandated, to have such disputes investigated and, if information turns out to be erroneous, have the information corrected.  The 7^th Credit Principle require SIMAH to have clear dispute policy and procedures for all disputing cases.

In 2017, Equifax Inc, a provider of consumer credit scores, said that personal details of as many as 143 million U.S. consumers were accessed by hackers between mid-May and July 2017, in what could be one of the largest data breaches in the United States. The company's shares fell nearly 19 percent in after-market trading as investors reacted to possible consequences of the exposure of sensitive data of nearly half of the U.S. population. Atlanta-based Equifax said in a statement that it discovered the breach on July 29 2017. It said criminals exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files that included names, genders, and other personal information.  Cybersecurity experts said the breach was very serious. "On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 10. It affects the whole credit reporting system in the United States because nobody can recover it, everyone uses the same data," according to cybersecurity experts. Thus, the 8^th Credit Principle requires SIMAH and all its members to take all required actions to preserve confidentiality of consumers' credit data.

1. Provide an effective financial infrastructure that can be relied on to ensure sustainable economic growth.
2. Contribute to sound financial infrastructure, assessing and managing risks.
3. Reduce credit information asymmetries.

•  Preserving consumers and commercials' rights.
•  Enabilng consumers to take sound decisions based on their financial abilitiees.
• Uplifting credit quality and credit expansion to stimulate economic growth and thus coming up with diversified credit products.

• Total number of beneficiaries: 551,085​
• Disputes closed in 2022: 148,101
• TAT (Turn Around Time) in 2019: 3 Days

(Saudi Credit Bureau) SIMAH is the leading credit bureau in the MENA region, serving individual consumers, small businesses and large corporations with a full range of credit and financial and risk management products and services.

Established in 2002, and operating since 2004 SIMAH has issued more than 104 million credit reports since 2004 with data quality score of 99.4%. Serving over 17.2 Million customers and having over 63 Million CI's, SIMAH is the largest credit bureau in the MENA region offering industry-leading product and services like SIMAT (Business Solutions), SIMATI (Consumer Solutions) and Value-Added Services (VAS) to cater to business and consumers alike.

SIMAH offers integrated solutions in the domain of analytics and decisioning with its subsidiary QARAR making it the first bureau linked analytics company in the region. MOARIF (The Legal Identifier), SNTR (SIMAH National Trade Repository) and TASNIF (SIMAH Rating) are also managed and operated by SIMAH ensuring vertical and horizonal integration of services.

SIMAH head office is based in Riyadh and can be reached on www.simah.com