EN ECB-PUBLIC  
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 12 April 2017 
on increasing the scope of data contained in the credit register  
(CON/2017/13) 
 
Introduction and legal basis 
 
On 3 March 2017, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Latvijas Banka for an 
opinion on a draft law amending the Law on the credit register (hereinafter the ‘draft law’).  
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 and fourth indents of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC
1, as the draft law relates to Latvijas Banka and to the collection, compilation and distribution of 
banking and financial statistics. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of 
Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
 
1.  Purpose of the draft law 1.1 The Law on the credit register (hereinafter the ‘Law’) fulfils the following purposes: (a) to contribute 
to financial stability in Latvia by providi ng (i) all participants in the credit register
2 with additional 
possibilities to assess the creditworthiness of their existing and potential customers, (ii) the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Committee with additional data necessary for the supervision of 
financial market participants, (iii) Latvijas Bank a with additional data  necessary for compiling 
financial statistics, and (iv) the Financial and Capital Market Committee and Latvijas Banka with 
additional data necessary for macroeconomic analysis; (b) to promote responsible lending to consumers as well as responsible and fair borrowing; (c) to promote the execution of public 
administration-related tasks; and (d) to contribute to promoting the fulfilment of the tasks of the 
European System of Central Banks (ESCB)
3. Latvijas Banka has operated the credit register since 
2008 and collects data for various purposes, in line with the objectives of the Law currently in force 
as enumerated above4.  
                                                 
1  Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national 
authorities regarding draft legislative provisions (OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42). 
2  Pursuant to Article 1(2) of the Law, participants include, inte r alia, credit institutions registered in Latvia and branches 
of foreign credit institutions that have been opened in Latvia, economic operators having close links with such credit 
institutions or branches thereof, credit unions registered in Latvia, insurance and reinsurance undertakings registered in Latvia and branches of such undertakings that have been opened in Latvia. 
3  See Article 2 of the Law.  
4  The ECB was consulted on the Law and its amendments and issued Opinions CON/2011/47 and CON/2013/93 
thereon. All ECB opinions are available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
ECB-PUBLIC  
2 1.2 The draft law has two objectives: (a) to ensure that the requirements set by Regulation (EU) 
2016/867 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2016/13)5 are fulfilled, and (b) to enhance the credit 
register as a source of information in order to enable its participants to better assess the 
creditworthiness of their existing and potential customers.  
1.3 While much of the data that needs to be repor ted under Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13) 
is already available through the existing credit re gister, the draft law extends the geographic scope 
of data collected from the national to the Union level to ensure full compliance with the Regulation. 
More specifically, the definitions of ‘customer’ and ‘potential customer’ and of ‘customer’s 
guarantor’ and ‘potential customer’s guarantor’ are broadened to cover liabilities originating in other Member States. Furthermore, granular data w ill be collected in respect of foreign branches 
registered in Latvia of credit institutions resi dent in other reporting Member States. Finally, the 
range of entities that are treated as customers will no longer exclude credit unions, electronic 
money institutions, money market funds and legal persons governed by public law, thus aligning 
the scope with the definition of ‘debtor’ cont ained in Regulation (E U) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13). 
Credit institutions, however, remain excluded from the definition of customers of the credit registry 
under the Law and will need to be subjected to reporting requirements contained in Regulation 
(EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13) through other legal in struments. The draft law explicitly entitles 
Latvijas Banka to disclose the data contained in the credit register, including granular level data, to 
the ECB on the basis of requirements laid down in Union law. 
1.4 The second objective of the proposed amendments does not relate to Regulation (EU) 2016/867 
(ECB/2016/13) but to the enhancement of the credit re gister as a source of information in order to 
enable its participants to better assess the cr editworthiness of their existing and potential 
customers. In particular, the draft law makes the following amendments to the Law: (a) the credit register will be supplemented by data from the Treasury of the Republic of Latvia in view of the 
volume of outstanding transactions carrying credit risk provided by the Treasury; and (b) the definition of financial services carrying credit risk is broadened to include surety services such as 
the provision of letters of credit, guarantee insurance and guarantee services. In addition, the draft 
law envisages shortening the retention period in respect of data related to clients and their 
guarantors as well as general data stored in the credit register from 15 to 10 years.  
 2. Observations 
2.1 The ECB welcomes the draft law as it amends the existing national reporting framework in order to 
fulfil new reporting requirements in the contex t of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13). 
Furthermore, in the spirit of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13), the draft law aims to draw 
on existing reporting arrangements to avoid imposing an undue reporting burden. 
2.2 It is understood that Latvijas Banka intends to draw primarily on data available through the existing 
credit register in order to comply with reporting requirements established under Regulation (EU) 2016/867
 (ECB/2016/13). This is fully in line with Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13), which 
                                                 
5  Regulation (EU) 2016/867 of the European Central Bank of 18 May 2016 on the collection of granular credit and 
credit risk data (ECB/2016/13) (OJ L 144, 1.6.2016, p. 44). 
ECB-PUBLIC  
3 envisages that in order to contribute to the Eurosystem’s AnaCredit database, national central 
banks (NCBs) should be allowed to use their own databases, data received from reporting agents and any other sources, including relevant reference databases
6. It is also understood that other 
sources for data collection will be used, including the Latvian Company Register or other relevant sources.  
2.3  The ECB notes that the draft law explicitly authorises Latvijas Banka to disclose to the ECB all data 
contained in the credit register, including granular  level data, relevant fo r the purposes of fulfilling 
the tasks of the ESCB. It is understood that this explicit authorisation is necessary from a national 
law perspective to ensure that Latvijas Banka has a robust legal basis for disclosing credit register data to the ECB for the purposes of dischargi ng its obligations under Regulation (EU) 2016/867 
(ECB/2016/13). Such a basis is required becaus e the Law prohibits disclosure of information 
contained in the register, unless such disclosure is explicitly provided for. This provision is without 
prejudice to the requirements of Article 10 of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13), which 
regulates the use of credit data reported under the Regulation by the ECB and NCBs. 
2.4 The ECB welcomes that the draft law strives to ensure that data provided to the credit register will 
facilitate the meeting of a number of requirements under
 Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13), 
for example, by covering liabilities originating in other Member States and by broadening the 
definition of customer to cover credit unions, electronic money institutions, money market funds 
and legal entities governed by public law. The ECB notes, however, that full compliance with the 
objectives and requirements of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13) will require further 
legislative and organisational work as not all the data that needs to be reported under the Regulation will be available from the credit register. In particular, regard should be had to the legal 
requirements concerning feedback loops, given that it is envisaged that further provisions on the scope and implementation of feedback loops by the NCBs may be laid down in separate legal acts 
adopted by the ECB or that NCBs may enter into Memoranda of Understanding, based on the applicable legal frameworks, regarding their respective cooperation in the feedback loops
7. 
2.5  It follows from the provisions of the Law that Latvijas Banka determines the scope and precise 
content of data to be entered in the credit register and the timing and procedures for inclusion of 
such data in the credit register. Latvijas Banka’s legislative acts and administrative instruments will 
need to be amended to reflect the changes introduced by the draft law and to fully comply with the requirements laid down in the annexes to Regulation (EU) 2016/867(ECB/2016/13).
 For this 
purpose, the ECB suggests that Latvijas Banka should ensure at each point in time that the data model defined in such implementing legislation corresponds to the data model valid at that point in 
time under Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13), in order for reporting requirements and 
implementation practices across the Eurosystem to remain sufficiently harmonised.   
                                                 
6  See recital 16 together with Article 8(3) to (5) of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13). 
7  See recital 18 of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13).  
ECB-PUBLIC  
4 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 
  
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 12 April 2017.  
[signed] 
 The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI