The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday directed credit information companies (CIC) to provide free credit reports in full to individuals whose credit score is maintained with the agency, effective January 1. The electronic report should be provided upon request and after due verification about the authenticity of the customer, any time during the calendar year, RBI said. “This report must show the latest position of the credit institutions’ exposure to the individual as per records available with the CIC,” RBI said in its notification, adding, the contents of the report should be the “same as appearing in the most detailed version of the reports on the individual provided to credit institutions, including the credit score”. An RBI-appointed committee headed by HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri had recommended that each customer of a credit institution be provided one base-level consumer credit information report free of cost every year by each credit information com