The credit bureaus that operate in the Dominican Republic have a major effect on the economic movement of people and businesses in the country. They handle, unilaterally, a confidential credit information database whose contents they provide to third parties with little or no controls as to what information is released. Sometimes incorrect information is sent out and this puts a halt to business or personal economic activity. Nobody is exempt from being blacklisted for incurring large debts, or for being a “bad payer”, because of an error from some financial or business institution or any late payment or overdue minimum balance. The credit reports are the main tool that banks and other credit institutions use for almost any operation. Next January 2006 is when Law 288-05 enters into effect, and the credit institutions will be regulated and clients will have the right to access their credit histories as well as make complaints about “leaks” of their credit histories. Since there is currently no legal framework for the credit agencies, some abuses have occurred, according to Claudia Vargas, an official of CICLA, one of the larger credit bureaus. However, Vargas attributes the errors to poor reporting from lending institutions.