Comprehensive credit reporting in New Zealand has been a mixed bag for consumers, with more people succeeding in their credit applications when dealing with a financial institution for the first time but a very high proportion of people having late payments recorded on their credit files.CCR was introduced in New Zealand two years earlier than Australia and passed the four-year mark last week. According to Veda, which is one of three credit bureaus in the NZ market, CCR data has been loaded on 3.8 open retail accounts out of an estimated total of 7.5 million open accounts."Open retail accounts" include credit contracts, as well as telecommunications, media and utility accounts. Veda said the 3.8 million accounts containing comprehensive data covered 2.7 million people - about two-thirds of New Zealand's adult population.Around 95 per cent of the comprehensive data is in shared mode, which means other credit providers can see it.The New Zealand CCR system is similar to Australia's, with a wider range of data allowed to be included in credit reports. The extra data includes payment history, account type and account limit. Veda New Zealand managing director Carol Chris said a significant change under CCR in New Zealand was that it was easier for consumers to change credit providers. Historically, if a consumer was "new to bank", credit would be approved in 40 per cent to 50 per cent of cases.Chris said the approval rate for new to bank customers was closer to 50 per cent to 65 per cent now. In many cases the consumer might not have a borrowing history for the credit provider to refer to but under CCR the credit provider could look at how they met obligations such as paying telco bills.Chris said this change had occurred without any observable change in risk profiles."Credit providers have been able to increase their lending approvals without experiencing a corresponding increase in the percentage of defaults," she said.On the downside, about 30 per cent of Veda's credit reports show a late payment. Chris said in the majority of cases the consumer is only one payment in arrears, which would not necessarily rule out credit approval.Chris conceded that with one in three reports showing payment arrears the message about comprehensive credit reporting had not got through to a lot of people."There is still a job to be done to drive consumer awareness," she said.