Harbin will keep the credit records of public servants in an effort to promote the construction of the city’s credit system, according to a plan issued by the city government.

The building of personal credit records is a necessary part of a market economy, since it is an invaluable resource for social and economic development, according to the credit records building plan for Harbin public servants.

The plan also states that credit records will also be built for accountants, lawyers, and clerks. Until now, a total of 4,251 credit records have been registered for people working in judicial and law enforcement agencies. Harbin’s Health Development Planning Commission has also started to build electronic credit records for medical staff, and hospitals are being urged to provide credit facilities to patients.

Until March this year, credit records have been kept for 7.49 million people in the personal credit data system maintained by the Harbin branch of the People’s Bank of China. A total of 1.91 million credit reports have been provided on request by the branch in Harbin.

Related departments in Harbin have enacted a series of measures to punish people with serious credit violations.

Defaulters who have been blacklisted by courts will not be allowed to take a flight, buy soft-berth sleeper tickets on a train, be the legal representative of a company, go abroad, or apply for loans or credit cards from financial institutions.

Since Aug 8, 2014, Harbin has published nine lists of 3,356 individuals who have defaulted on their debts and 109 people who have had their credit cards frozen at 15 different banks. The lists also contain the details of 800 people who have been banned from buying air tickets and 316 people who have been banned form going abroad.

In the United States, everybody has a social security number (SSN), by which their employee, health, student, and credit records are sometimes indexed, according to Yu Yin, a credit construction expert from a Beijing risk management consulting firm.

Yu claims that more people with bad credit records will be carefully scrutinized and might be refused outright when applying for bank accounts or a medical social security number.

Although significant achievements have been made in the development of a credit system, the system in China still needs improving.

According to a survey of 647 respondents, 58 percent of people said they didn’t know if they have personal credit records and 51 percent of respondents didn’t know how to check their personal credit reports.

Hou Kun, a member of the Harbin municipal political consultative conference, has called for gradually improving the personal credit management system and building a social credit authority. Hou feels that when people realize credit records are a kind of commodity, they will be more likely to honor their financial commitments.