The Australian Law Reform Commission proposed a move to more comprehensive credit reporting but stopped short of recommending a move to the full positive reporting model that has been promoted by a majority of credit providers.The ALRC yesterday released a 3000 page, three volume discussion paper containing 301 proposals for reform of the Privacy Act.The commission recommended that credit bureaus be allowed to store a number of additional pieces of information in credit files. These include the date of opening of a credit account and the date of closing an account, the credit limit, the name of the credit provider and the type of credit being provided (credit card, personal loan and so on).It rejected industry submissions calling for the inclusion of current balance (the amount of the limit drawn down) and repayment history.The ALRC has set a deadline of December 7 for responses to the discussion paper and it will then prepare final recommendations for delivery to the Attorney-General in March next year.Under the current rules credit files prepared by credit reporting agencies can include the identity of the borrower, notice of overdue payments, cheques worth more than  $100 that have been dishonoured twice, bankruptcy orders and court judgements, previous applications for credit reports and a credit provider's opinion that that individual has committed a serious credit infringement.The ALRC acknowledged that the current system creates an information asymmetry, where the individual applying for credit knows more about their financial affairs than the credit provider does. It accepted that such an arrangement led to adverse selection, where the cost of credit was cheap for bad credits and expensive for good credits, and also to moral hazard, where some credit applicants would be encouraged to commit fraud.It accepted that more information available for risk assessment could lead to more responsible lending, but it did not accept that better risk assessment would automatically follow. It also felt that part of the rationale for the push for comprehensive reporting was to create efficiencies for the lenders and reduce their costs.ALRC commissioner Les McCrimmon said: "There is scope now for them to do additional checking, with the permission of the credit applicant. They don't want to have to do those checks."McCrimmon said there was a fine line between more accurate risk assessment and better targeted marketing."With positive reporting you are exposing more personal information. We had to ask: Did the benefits to the credit providers outweigh the privacy issues? "We said there was some room for  extra information but once you get beyond the credit  limit and into drawdown and performance details you are getting right into areas of concern about privacy."