diff --git a/lib/moodlelib.php b/lib/moodlelib.php
index 047430b48c0..3ecb5fa9037 100644
--- a/lib/moodlelib.php
+++ b/lib/moodlelib.php
@@ -3298,7 +3298,8 @@ function create_user_record($username, $password, $auth = 'manual') {
     }
     $newuser->confirmed = 1;
     $newuser->lastip = getremoteaddr();
-    $newuser->timemodified = time();
+    $newuser->timecreated = time();
+    $newuser->timemodified = $newuser->timecreated;
     $newuser->mnethostid = $CFG->mnet_localhost_id;
 
     $newuser->id = $DB->insert_record('user', $newuser);
@@ -3361,6 +3362,7 @@ function update_user_record($username) {
         }
         if ($newuser) {
             $newuser['id'] = $oldinfo->id;
+            $newuser['timemodified'] = time();
             $DB->update_record('user', $newuser);
             // fetch full user record for the event, the complete user data contains too much info
             // and we want to be consistent with other places that trigger this event