Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi

Simah (Saudi Credit Bureau) is the brainchild of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and saudi banks. In 2004, it started offering consumer and commercial credit information services. This means that local banks and lending agencies looks at exchange data with almost any business you may deal with about your financial performance.



So if you happen to have an issue with a phone company, for example, resulting in not paying a disputed amount, say SR600, they can punish you by adding this to your credit history without waiting for their own accounting department to rule on the dispute.



And what if you win, or come to an agreement with them, and pay in full? You are still in the red. Getting a number on your report is as easy as hitting a button, but clearing it is more difficult than getting a home mortgage.



I thought this was too much, until I met someone who was told that he owes Aljazira Bank SR3,400,000, even though he has no account or business with it. Going back and forth between Simah and the bank for months now, all he could find is that someone in Aljazira hit a button in error and they just can’t take it back!



The problem, as a banking source explained, is that the Saudi Monetary Agency’s only purpose is to serve the banks’ interests, so the system is created to protect them and not the consumers.



While the universal concept is useful, the application is erratic. In the US, for example, credit bureaus’ role is to keep record of your financial transactions, so if you fail to pay your dues, it is on your record for a certain period of time.



The system is updated online, both ways, so once you pay what you owe, your record is cleared immediately. And of course you could always petition against wrong entries, and sue those who did it. Therefore, businesses are careful about what to put on your report. Still, 90 percent of credit reports contain inaccuracies, according to the US General Accounting Office (GAO).



I saw, here, many customers who were given bad name in error. Say you applied for a credit card, or one was offered to you, but you didn’t claim it. The issuing bank may put it on your record forever. It keeps adding annual fees as unpaid dues, increasing your overall credit ceiling and reducing your ability to get loans.



Worse, if some marketing representative got your signature on an offer of an expensive car, you may find that, in Simah, you owe the company half a million riyals, even though you changed your mind and didn’t buy that car. A customer once found that in his credit history he owes sixteen cars that he never saw.



Like our bourse, this is another example of a good idea that, in practice, turned ugly. Yes, we need to protect banks and businesses from “bad guys,” and it is only fair that they should pay for their bad deeds. But we should protect “good guys” in the process. It is not that difficult balancing the system to protect both businesses and consumers by making it sophisticated, accurate and fair. We haven’t invented it, so at least we should make a good copy.



Any good/bad experiences with Simah, dear readers, you’d like to share? Here are your comments on my last article (Business ethics in Islam):



Dr. Rashied Small: “In South Africa, especially in the educational sector, all religious events are respected, and allowances are made to accommodate them. Christmas, Diwali, Eid and Jewish new years are recognized 'unofficially' as public holidays. Classes and examinations during Ramadan Iftar are suspended for 15 minutes.



“The problem with business ethics is routed in the separation of religious and secular life, whereas Islam represents a total integration of both. Thus, to develop business ethics, we must re-establish Islam as a 'deen' and not follow its Western definition as a religion. That is because the manner in which Muslims should conduct business, personal, social and governmental affairs are all enshrined in the code of Islam.”



Ismaeel Marikar: “Trustworthiness is one of the most important principles of ethical discipline in commercial transactions. Trust is a moral virtue and duty incumbent on a Muslim in the performance of his affairs. It demands sincerity in work and purity of intention from every believer.”



ABU SABRI: “The longest verse in Qur'an (282; Baqarah) is about business transactions, not the pillars of Islam, written in simple, easy to grasp language.”



Muhammad Siddiqui: “Reality is that we, as Muslims, totally ignore the teaching of our religion. One example is the exploitation of Haj quotas approved to organizations and individuals by turning it into a for-sale commodity.”



Faiz Al-Najdi: “Ethics is not emphasized enough in our universities. In Canada, you won’t be awarded a Professional Engineer license until you have passed an ethics exam. Muslims must realize that the West views Islam through Muslim behavior.”



Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him at Twitter: @kbatarfi