EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 8 March 2011 
on the Central Corporate Credit Register  
(CON/2011/20) 
 Introduction and legal basis
 
On 11 February 2011, the European Central Bank (E CB) received a request from the Nationale Bank van 
België/Banque Nationale de Belgique  (NBB), acting on behalf of the Belgian Ministry of Finance, for an 
opinion on a draft law on the Central Corporate Credit Re gister (hereinafter the ‘draft law’) and a draft 
royal decree on the Central Corporate Credit Register (h ereinafter the ‘draft royal decree’) (the draft law 
and the draft royal decree hereinafter collectivel y referred to as the ‘draft legislation’).  
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union, and the third i ndent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC 
of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions1, as the draft legislation relates to the N BB. In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Eur opean Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted 
this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft legislation 
1.1 The draft legislation will amend the current lega l framework for the Central Corporate Credit 
Register (CCCR)
2, under which credit institutions establishe d in Belgium must report to the NBB 
certain data concerning credit, from an aggregated amount of EUR 25 0003, granted to a beneficiary 
with a view to including such data in the CCCR.  The reform will increase the amount of credit data 
available in the CCCR. The rationale behind the draf t legislation is twofold: (a) as shown during the 
financial crisis, a comprehensive and efficient cent ralisation of credit data is essential to ensure 
good credit risk management; and (b) in view of developments in the credit granting business, the 
CCCR no longer contains all the data necessary for a proper assessment of credit risks by individual 
institutions and supervisory authorities4. The explanatory memorandum to the draft law specifies 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  Centrale voor kredieten aan ondernem ingen/Centrale des crédits aux enterpri ses. The legal framework for the CCCR 
consists of Title VI of the Law of 22 March 1993 on the status and supervision of credit institutions, and the 
implementing Royal Decree of 12 December 1994 on the centralisation of information relating to credit risks. 
3  A similar reporting requirement  also applies to insurance companies established in Belgium that are licensed to provide: 
(i) credit insurance services or (ii) suretyship insurance serv ices, with respect to credit insurance and suretyship insurance 
agreements (Article 2 of the Royal Decree of 12 December 1994). 
4  Explanatory memorandum to the draft law, pp. 1 and 2. 
2 that a consensus was reached with  the current and prospective re porting institutions concerning the 
increase in the amount of data subject to CCCR reporting requirements.  
1.2 The main changes introduced by the draft legisl ation in the current legal framework relate to: 
(a) the addition of leasing and factoring companie s to the group of institutions subject to 
reporting requirements5; 
(b) the abolition of the EUR 25 000 threshold for reporting credit data to the CCCR; and  
(c) the extension of the reporting requirement to a more detailed set of data concerning certain 
agreements concluded by reporting institutions6. The new set of data to be reported would 
cover7, for example, the date and the amount of any payment default8, the initial and residual 
duration of the agreement and th e country where it was concluded9, any recoverable 
amount10 and the probability of default at one year11. 
 2.  General observation 
The ECB fully welcomes the draft legislation. By br oadening the scope of the requirement to report credit 
data to the CCCR, the reform will increase the amount  of data centrally available in the CCCR and the 
level of detail of such data. In turn, this will serve to enhance individual institutions’ credit risk 
management
12, as well as risk assessment for the financial sect or as a whole. In this latter respect, the 
draft legislation will be beneficial for the exercise of prudential supervision, currently carried out in 
Belgium by the Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission (BFIC)13, as well as for the NBB’s task of 
contributing to the stability of the financial system14. In addition, the ECB welcomes the provision of the 
                                                 
5  Article 2, 2° b) and Article 2, 2° c) of the draft law. See also Article 20 of the draft law amending the current definition of 
leasing in Royal Decree No 55 of 10 November 1967 organising the legal status of leasing companies. In the case of 
leasing and factoring companies, the data to be reporte d to the CCCR concerns leasi ng and factoring agreements 
concluded with Belgian residents in the context of their professional activities. 
6 I.e. credit agreements, leasing agreements, factoring agreem ents, suretyship insurance agreements and credit insurance 
agreements.  
7  Articles 3 and 4 of the draft law, further specified in Ar ticle 1, 3° and Articles 3 and 4 of the draft royal decree. 
8  Payment default is defined as (a) th e absence of reimbursement by the benefi ciary of an amount outstanding, or the 
incomplete reimbursement of such amount , within 90 calendar days following its due date, or (b) the fact that the 
reporting institution considers it unlikely that the outstanding  amount will be fully reimbursed in accordance with the 
terms of the contract unless appropriate measures are taken, such  as the realisation of possible guarantees (Article 2, 9° of 
the draft law). Article 1, 3° of the draft royal decree define s which amount is to be reporte d as payment default in these 
two cases. See also Article 3 §2, 5° of the draft royal decree. 
9  Article 3 §2, 2° of the draft royal decree. 
10  I.e. the total amount that the reporting institution consid ers it will probably be able to recover on the basis of the 
guarantees that were provided by the beneficiary (Article 3 §2, 3° of the draft royal decree). 
11  Article 3 §2, 4° of the draft royal decree. 
12  The right to consult the CCCR is open to all reporti ng institutions (Article 9 §1 1° of the draft law).  
13  Commissie voor het Bank-, Financie- en  Assurantiewezen/Commission bancaire, fina ncière et des assurances. The BFIC 
may consult the CCCR for the execution of the tasks entrusted to it  by or pursuant to the law (Article 9 §1 2° of the draft 
law). With respect to the envisaged transfer of prudential supervisory tasks from the BFIC to the NBB, see Opinions 
CON/2010/7 and CON/2011/5. All ECB opinions are publishe d on the ECB’s website www.ecb.europa.eu. The ECB 
understands that the royal decree organising this transfer of competence has been adopted by the Belgian Government on 
25 February 2011.  
14  This task is laid down in Article 12 of the Law of 22 Febr uary 1998 establishing the organic status of the Nationale Bank 
van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique. The draft law expre ssly allows the NBB to use the data recorded in the CCCR 
3 draft law allowing the NBB to also use the informat ion stored in the CCCR for research and statistical 
purposes15. 
 3.  Specific observations 3.1 Under the draft legislation, the NBB will be designated as the central reporting point for the 
relevant credit data. The NBB is also entrusted with  various tasks related to the maintenance of and 
access to the CCCR by authorised entities
16, as is already the case under the CCCR’s current legal 
framework17. As regards the financing of such tasks pe rformed by the NBB, th e ECB refers to the 
principle of financial independence under which a national central bank must have sufficient means 
not only to perform its European System of Centra l Bank tasks, but also its national tasks, e.g. 
financing its administration and own operations18. The ECB considers that the draft legislation does 
not raise concerns in this respect, since it author ises the NBB to charge the costs related to the 
collection, storage, management, checking an d dissemination of CCCR data to the reporting 
institutions19.  
3.2 The ECB understands that the requirements aris ing from the national transposition of Directive 
95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995  on the protection of 
individuals with regard to the processing of pers onal data and on the free movement of such data20 
will be followed with respect to the CCCR data that  the NBB will be authorised to keep beyond the 
one year retention period for scientific or statis tical purposes, under Article 8 of the draft royal 
decree. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 8 March 2011. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                                                                                                                             
for scientific and statistical purposes, as well as in the cont ext of its tasks carried out under the Law of 22 February 1998 
(Article 16 of the draft law). 
15  Article 16 of the draft law. 
16  See in particular Articles 3, 6 and 9 of the draft law. 
17  See in particular Articles 91 and 92 of the Law of 22 March 1993. 
18  See the ECB’s Convergence Report, May 2010, p. 21, an d in particular Opinion CON/2011/5, paragraph 3.1.  
19  Article 17 of the draft law. 
20  OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.