How to check a client's credit history in the Dominican Republic
By Equipo Prestafolio
The credit bureaus regulated by the Banking Superintendency, the Central de Riesgos, how to check for free, and what an informal lender can see before lending.
In the Dominican Republic the credit bureaus are regulated by the Banking Superintendency, and an informal lender, without an affiliation contract with them, cannot query them directly about a third party: only the person themselves can request their own history. That is the first surprise for anyone looking up "how to check if my client is flagged": the answer is not a website you query with someone else's ID, it is a process that depends on the client requesting their own report, or on other signals that are actually within your reach.
Updated as of 15 July 2026. The data in this article (bureau names, deadlines, figures) was checked against the Banking Superintendency, specialised press and the bureaus themselves. Before making a business decision, confirm the current figure at the official source linked in each section.
The bureaus regulated by the Banking Superintendency
In the Dominican market people talk about "being in Data-Crédito" or "being in TransUnion" as if they were the only ones, but the Banking Superintendency supervises several Sociedades de Información Crediticia (SIC), and the list can change over time. As of 15 July 2026, the ones listed with "operating" status are four:
Bureau (SIC) | Note |
|---|---|
TransUnion Dominicana | Absorbed CICLA (Centro de Información Crediticia de las Américas) in 2005 |
Data-Crédito (now Equifax Dominicana) | Founded in 1998; acquired by multinational Equifax in March 2022 |
Kalifika | Credit Information Society supervised by the Banking Superintendency |
Acierta | Credit Information Society supervised by the Banking Superintendency |
All are Sociedades de Información Crediticia (SIC), a legal category created by Law 172-13 (on Personal Data Protection), and the Banking Superintendency is the only body that oversees them. Do not trust names that are not on the Superintendency's official list: if anyone offers to check "the national bureau" outside these channels, verify it against that list first.
Sources: Banking Superintendency, Credit Information Societies and Diario Libre, Data-Crédito's acquisition by Equifax (18 March 2022).
Two different registries people confuse
There is a very common confusion worth clearing up before going on, because it changes where you have to check:
| The private bureaus (SIC) | The Central de Riesgos |
|---|---|---|
What it is | Private companies (TransUnion, Data-Crédito, Kalifika, Acierta) that collect payment behaviour | A registry of the Banking Superintendency itself with data from regulated financial entities |
What it holds | What their affiliated information sources report | Loans and cards in the regulated financial system, and your risk category (Art. 56 of the Monetary and Financial Law) |
How it is checked | Each SIC has its own channel; right to 4 free checks a year per SIC | Free and unlimited, via the ProUsuario app |
They are not the same, which is why this article keeps them separate: when someone says "I checked my credit on ProUsuario," they are seeing the Superintendency's Central de Riesgos, not necessarily the full report from each of the four private bureaus.
Who can check what
Here is the point that confuses an informal lender the most:
Who is asking | What they can see |
|---|---|
The person themselves, about themselves | Their Central de Riesgos via ProUsuario (free, unlimited) and their history at each SIC (free, up to 4 times a year per SIC, minimum 3 months between checks) |
A regulated bank or lender, with the applicant's consent | The history of whoever is applying for credit with them |
A company with an affiliation contract with a SIC | Information about its own applicants, within the contract |
An informal lender, with no affiliation contract, about a third party | Nothing. There is no public channel for a private individual to check someone else's history without their involvement |
The law protects the debtor's data: nobody can scan a stranger's ID and see their history. The only real route is to ask your own client to check their own history and show it to you, as part of your evaluation process before lending.
How your client checks their own history
It is free, and there are two routes, matching the two registries above:
Route | What it shows | How |
|---|---|---|
ProUsuario app | The Superintendency's Central de Riesgos: loans and cards in the regulated system, and the risk category | Download the app, verify identity; free and unlimited |
Each SIC directly | The bureau's report (TransUnion, Data-Crédito, Kalifika or Acierta) | Via each SIC's channel; free up to 4 times a year per SIC |
For a lender, the practical move is to ask the client to show their Central de Riesgos via ProUsuario (fast and unlimited) and, if the amount justifies it, also a report from one of the bureaus. The bigger the loan, the more sense it makes to see both.
Source: ProUsuario, credit consultation (Banking Superintendency).
What "being flagged" means
When someone "comes up bad" on the bureau, it is almost always for one of two reasons:
Reason | What it means | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
Active arrears | They have a commitment that is due and unpaid right now | For as long as the delay lasts |
Negative history | They had arrears in the past, even if already settled | 48 months (4 years) from the default, per Law 172-13 |
That second point is the one that surprises people most: paying off the debt does not erase the history right away. The law sets a fixed four-year window before negative information stops being shown, even though the record already marks the debt as settled.
Source: ABA, Association of Commercial Banks, on CICLA and the credit bureau.
What you can actually do, without relying on the bureau
If you cannot check a third party directly, what is actually left to you as an informal lender? Three real options:
- Ask your client for their own report. It is free for them, and the request alone tells you a lot: someone with no active arrears usually has no problem showing it.
- Ask for verifiable references: another lender or shop that extended them credit before, with a real contact, not just word of mouth.
- Use a payment history shared between lenders on your own platform. This is different from the regulated bureaus and the Central de Riesgos: it is not a SIC and not a Superintendency registry, it is a payment record native to a tool like Prestafolio, fed by lenders who actually use that tool. See Trust and the bureau for the exact difference.
External bureau vs. your platform's internal history: they are not the same
It is easy to confuse them because both answer the same question ("does this client pay well?"), but they are different things:
| Regulated bureau (SIC) and Central de Riesgos | Platform's internal history |
|---|---|---|
Who oversees it | Banking Superintendency, per Law 172-13 | Nobody external: it is a product feature |
Who feeds the data | Banks, lenders and companies affiliated by contract | The lenders who use that tool |
Who can check it | The holder, and entities with an affiliation contract | Any user of the tool, about an ID they already have in front of them |
Covers an isolated informal lender | Generally not: they usually cannot affiliate | Yes, that is exactly its purpose |
For a lender operating outside the regulated financial system, their own tool's internal history is usually the most practical, accessible day-to-day signal; the regulated bureau and the Central de Riesgos remain the most complete, but only the client themselves can activate them.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay someone to get me another person's report? Do not do it. Requesting or buying a third party's history without their consent steps straight over Law 172-13 and exposes you, not just whoever sold it to you. Any "access" offered outside the official channels above is not legal.
Does ProUsuario show me every bureau's report? Not exactly. ProUsuario gives access to the Superintendency's Central de Riesgos (the regulated financial system), which is a different registry from each private SIC's report. For the full report from a specific bureau, you go to that SIC's channel.
If my client shows me their report, how do I know they did not alter it? Reports from the bureaus and the Central de Riesgos carry recognisable formatting and seals from each institution; for large amounts, ask them to show it to you live from the app or portal, not just a photo.
Does this apply the same way if my client lives in another country in the region? No: each country has its own bureaus and its own data protection law. This article covers the Dominican Republic specifically.
Summary
- The regulated bureaus in the DR are overseen by the Banking Superintendency: as of 15 July 2026 there are four SICs (TransUnion, Data-Crédito/Equifax, Kalifika and Acierta), and the list can grow.
- ProUsuario gives access to the Superintendency's Central de Riesgos, a different registry from each private SIC's report: do not confuse them.
- An informal lender cannot check a third party's history without their involvement: only the holder checks their own.
- Checking your own is free: the Central de Riesgos unlimited via ProUsuario, and each SIC up to 4 times a year.
- Negative history lasts 48 months even once the debt is already paid; your platform's internal history is a different, complementary tool.
Prestafolio keeps every client's payment history, attached to their ID, across all the lenders who use the platform: it is the signal you can actually check yourself before lending, without depending on your client requesting their own report. See Trust and the bureau and Registering a client.