Consumer Profile Bureau (CPB) has denied keeping the medical status of consumers on its records.
The National Credit Regulator (NCR) said on Wednesday that it had issued a compliance notice to CPB for recording information about the medical status of consumers.
NCR spokeswoman Lebogang Selibi said the notice required CPB to remove all medical information from its records and to stop entering the information, as this was not allowed.
“I categorically state that CPB has never accepted and does not carry medical account information,” chief executive Marina Short said in a statement on Thursday.
Short said CPB was surprised when it received a non-compliance notice from the NCR last week.
The notice had been received after CPB asked for clarity from the regulator about whether cause of death, as provided by the Department of Home Affairs, was deemed to be medical data, Short said.
She said that while CPB was awaiting clarity on the issue, the bureau had made a decision to remove the data from any deceased consumer’s profile until feedback was received from the office of the NCR.
“The notice from the NCR refers to the cause of death information provided by the Department of Home Affairs to credit bureaus and other data houses,” Short said.
She said the information included date of death, place of death and cause of death, as registered on the department’s database.
“This information is also printed when an official death certificate is requested from the Department of Home Affairs,” Short said.
Selibi could not be reached for comment before the long Easter weekend. – Sapa