China's central bank has allowed eight private firms to set up personal credit information business to complement the existing credit reference system.

The move is aimed at getting market-driven organizations to play their part in helping set up a credit reference market and cooperate with each other.

Zhao Xijun, vice- director of the Finance and Securities Institute at Renmin University, says the move will bring in competition and help to improve credit services in China.

"Credit information involved in online transactions, e-commerce transactions, for example, can be processed via banks. But banks sometimes find it a bit difficult to process such information if the transaction credit is too small. In order to solve this issue, private firms with online transaction platforms have started to provide their own credit information services. It is mainly used to manage client credit information. We need a general supervision system for such services. The central bank is working to establish it."

The eight firms, including Internet giant Tencent and e-commerce giant Alibaba, will have six months to work toward launching their business.