What is the full form of CIF

CIF: Customer Information File

CIF stands for Customer Information File. It is a computerized file that contains all relevant information about bank customers' account and personal details. It consolidates customer account information, purchase history, etc., and adds to it the basic demographic information of the customer to create a current snapshot of a customer. It is a comprehensive snapshot of how a customer has interacted with the bank in the past. We can say that it provides the business with a summary of all of the activities of a particular person. The details are held in an electronic format. However, a CIF can also be a paper file or folder containing all the relevant documents of a customer.

It is a component of integrated banking application packages which is mainly used to support operational activities within in a bank using current data, instead of relying on historical data. To create a CIF, the bank gathers information from different channels to build a more centralized picture of customers and their purchasing behaviour.

CIF is also a part of customer relationship management (CRM), wherein the businesses make strategies to maintain and improve their relationships with their customers. Furthermore, it also helps banks for marketing purposes such as to cross-sell various products and services to customers and to assist in other administrative functions.

In commercial banking, it provides information related to products and services bought by a customer, it may also tell about the previous queries made by the customers so that they can be provided with the targeted information for the purpose of upselling.