As the country continues to face economic headwinds, Vice President and District Head for Scotiabank Roger Archer explained that households need to keep their credit scores front of mind, to ensure they will have access to credit in difficult times.
Archer, who made the comments during the TCL Group’s webinar series “Economic Resilience: Preparing for the Opportunities and Challenges of 2023”, explained that people should request a copy for their credit report to begin understanding it, vetting it and improving it.
“We now have a credit bureau and households have to be mindful of that, because as we go into what is likely to be very uncertain period, managing your credit score, making sure that you have access to credit when it is needed, is critical,” said Archer.
“I really want to encourage everyone to become familiar with their credit score. Maybe start from now. Get a copy of that credit report, making sure that it’s accurate and actively managing that score.
“Because of the uncertainty in front of us, you want to make sure that you’re managing your household and managing your business to get you through any challenges that we may face in the future.”
Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Gowon Bowe, who was also a webinar panelist, said the banking sector is seeing a reduction in people and businesses that are qualifying for credit. He explained, though, that the banking sector remains able to weather future economic storms.
“I think that the banking sector as it currently is capitalized, has the ability to withstand further storms because it is really now for the past two years been managing bad credit.
“And I don’t mean in terms of the entire book being bad credit, I mean the credit environment being less than productive.
“We as a sector have to become more innovative in terms of value-add products and services.”
