KUALA LUMPUR: CTOS Digital Bhd's stock price fell 0.68 per cent or one sen to RM1.45, after a High Court ruled that the credit reporting agency lacks the authority to create its own credit score.
The company has a market capitsalistion of RM3.3 billion.
CTOS Digital is the holding company of Asean's leading credit reporting agencies namely CTOS in Malaysia and BOL in Thailand.
Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir ruled that CTOS was only authorised to store credit information accessible to its subscribers, as per the Credit Reporting Agencies Act 2010 (CRAA).
He emphasised that the Act did not grant CTOS the authority to create its own criteria or percentage to formulate a credit score.
Despite this, CTOS developed a credit score based on various factors such as payment history, amount owed, credit history length, credit mix, and new credit, each with assigned percentages determining an individual's credit status.
His judgement was for the case of a 43-year-old businesswoman who had sued CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, alleging that their inaccurate credit rating caused damage to her reputation, personal finances, and business.
She owned a resort in Pulau Perhentian.
In May 2019, her car loan application was rejected based on CTOS' negative report, which she later found to contain inaccurate data, resulting in an erroneous negative rating.
As a result, the High Court ordered CTOS Data Systems to pay RM200,000 in general damages to the businesswoman.
Business Times has reached out to CTOS Digital for comment.