BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is seeking to expand the use of its credit database to prevent credit risks and strengthen commercial security, said a senior official of the PBOC.

    The database covering 560 million individuals and more than 11.6 million businesses could be accessed free of charge from 200,000 terminals, and received an average of 260,000 checking requests per day, Su Ning, deputy PBOC president, told a seminar on credit risk management.

    Those terminals were spread in China's financial institutions, including commercial banks, non-banking financial agencies, rural credit cooperatives and institutions managing public housing funds, Su said.

    Companies providing financial guarantees and leasing services, telecommunication firms and public utility enterprises would soon be allowed to join, he said.

    The database also contained the details and addresses of individuals and their payment defaults on mortgage loans, social security funds, public housing funds, and bills for mobile and land-line phones.

    For a country where people had a habit of carrying cash, setting up a credit database was an arduous job, said Wan Cunzhi, deputy director of the Credit Investigation Bureau of the PBOC. Most of the information was collected by commercial banks.

    He said the PBOC was in talks with the State Administration of Taxation and the Supreme Court of China about increasing the range of the database by tracking tax payments and civil compensation.

    Linked with the information system of the Ministry of Public Security, the database could also help financial institutions to detect those who used fake identities to cheat on loans.

    People with histories of payment defaults would have difficulty borrowing from banks, Wan said.

    Most individuals being tracked were people with bank accounts. "The scope is to expand, but it will not grow fast as the remaining population are mainly the elderly and children who are economically inactive," Wan said.

    Su Ning said the database had improved the credit environment of China, but the public and financial institutions should be made more aware of it.

    The government would stick to a centralized credit database as it could reveal the full picture of the financial status of Chinese people and enterprises and better support the cross-regional flow of business and individuals.