Australia's biggest credit bureau operator, Veda, has attacked the rules being proposed for participants in the comprehensive credit reporting system, saying they will have a "stifling effect" on participation in the scheme and limit growth in credit reporting and credit markets.Veda has made a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission saying that the rules will impose a high cost burden on small credit providers and limit their full participation in the system.Back in February the Australian Retail Credit Association submitted a draft of its Principles of Reciprocity and Data Exchange to the ACCC, which reviewed submissions and in July issued a draft determination authorising the rules. Since then it has taken further submissions.The main element of the PRDE is the reciprocity obligation, where signatories to the comprehensive scheme (which is voluntary) agree that only those credit providers supplying comprehensive data to credit reporting bureaus can have access to comprehensive data in return. Another important element of the PRDE is the consistency obligation, which says credit providers must deal with bureaus on a consistent basis. What this means is that credit providers must contribute data at the same level and amount to all the bureaus with which they have relationships.A third key element is that signatories accept that sanctions apply for non-compliance.Veda's concern, set out in its latest submission to the ACCC, is with the consistency rule, which it says will impose high costs on credit providers.Veda said such an arrangement would be costly. "The rules will cause many credit providers either not to participate in CCR data sharing at all or limit themselves to relationships with one bureau," it said."This is due to the costs to all credit providers of participation in the PRDE and, in particular, of the consistency provisions. Credit providers will restrict themselves to a relationship with one bureau or they will incur significant costs. Either way they face a competitive disadvantage."This will reduce CCR data exchange. The PRDE will lead to less rather than more data exchange and greater data fragmentation."Veda said that the ACCC's (and ARCA's) assessment of the costs involved in implementing comprehensive credit reporting systems was based on a poor understanding of the process, which its submission outlines in some detail."The ACCC draft determination concludes that the costs of the consistency provisions of the PRDE appear relatively small. Veda considers that the consistency provisions will impose significant additional or incremental ongoing costs on all credit providers who deal with multiple credit reporting bureaus and that the consistency provisions do not give rise to any benefit," Veda said.It said there were less prescriptive solutions that would result in optimal data exchange. "The solution adopted in the United Kingdom - a voluntary code supported in the contractual framework - is a preferable approach and consistent with the approach advocated by the World Bank and the OECD."One of Veda's bureau service competitors, Experian, said in a brief submission that it was fully supportive of the principles of reciprocity, consistency and enforceability in the PRDE.ARCA's