I refer to the malaysiakini report Kayveas: Ctos holding public to ransom .

Despite M Kayveas' very pertinent statements on Ctos, the fact remains that some form of credit checking service needs to exist in Malaysia. Credit checks cannot be avoided in the modern financial industry.

However, proper regulations and parameters which are benchmarked against best practices in other countries are vital for these companies. The authorities should seize the opportunity generated by the current public discourse to put in place strict guidelines for such services. The following are some of the areas financial regulators can look into.

Time limits on retaining data - it should be made mandatory that these services remove old data (unless the issues are still outstanding) from a citizen's records. Five years should be longest time these companies can retain financial information. In other words, people should have a chance to strengthen their financial ratings if they settle all earlier financial issues they may have been entangled with.

Currently, records appear to be maintained 'forever' and people who have long ago recovered from their financial troubles are still being picked up by Ctos checks.

A 'freedom of information' type of law should be implemented that would compel credit rating companies to allow people to view their own profiles for free or for a very minimal sum (say RM5 to cover printing costs only) at least once a year.

A transparent and rule-based automatic procedure should be put into place for people to request for changes and to update to their profiles. This system should also have a mechanism to resolve disputes that may arise between Ctos and consumers.

People should also be able to ask for records and logs of all those who made searches on their records to prevent unnecessary breaches of privacy and confidentiality.

I'm sure there are many other guidelines these companies should follow. I hope other readers will come up with more suggestions so that these 'financial vultures' can be reined in properly.