EN ECB-PUBLIC  
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 21 December 2012 
on new credit register measures in Ireland 
(CON/2012/111) 
 
Introduction and legal basis 
On 6 November 2012, the European Central Bank (ECB)  received a request from the Irish Minister for 
Finance for an opinion on the Credit Reporting Bill 2012 (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 sixth indents 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 law relates to the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) and 
contains rules applicable to financial institutions insofar as they materially influence the stability of 
financial institutions and markets. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of 
Procedure of the European Central Bank, th e Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1. Purpose of the draft law 
The publication of the draft law is a structural be nchmark commitment of the Irish Government under the 
EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland. The objective of the draft law is to establish a 
comprehensive and reliable register of credit inform ation, called the Central Credit Register (CCR), to 
assist in achieving public policy objectives and improvi ng financial stability by providing information for 
the assessment of creditworthiness and other purposes. The CCR will be established, owned and operated 
by the CBI. The ECB was consulted on the General Scheme of the draft law and adopted its Opinion 
CON/2012/74
2. 
 2. General observations 2.1 The ECB refers to its Opinion CON/2012/74 and we lcomes the fact that a number of the points 
made in that opinion have been addressed in th e draft law. The ECB welcomes in particular the 
fact that, under the draft law, information about the credit histories and borrowings of both natural and legal persons will be recorded. 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2  All ECB opinions are published on th e ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
ECB-PUBLIC  
2 2.2 As the ECB has pointed out in previous opinion s, the principle of financial independence requires 
that, when allocating specific non-ESCB tasks to the national central banks (NCBs), additional human and financial resources must also be allocat ed for these tasks to be carried out in a manner 
that will not affect the NCBs’ operational cap acity to perform their ESCB-related tasks
3. Under 
the draft law the CBI may, with the consent of the Minister, make regulations prescribing a levy 
to be paid to the CBI by credit information pr oviders (CIPs) for the purpose of meeting expenses 
properly incurred in the performance of its functi ons under the draft law that are not met through 
other means4. The ECB understands that this provision aims  to clarify that all CBI expenses in 
connection with the establishment, operation a nd maintenance of the CCR will be covered by 
levies prescribed by the CBI. 
 3. Credit information providers and credit information subjects 3.1 The ECB considers that it would be useful to cl arify whether the defined term ‘credit information 
provider’ includes financial service providers in  other Union Member States, and whether the 
term ‘credit information subject’ (CIS) includes natural and legal persons  with residency or 
registration outside Ireland.  
3.2 Section 6 of the draft law lists a number of attributes to be collected as regards the identification 
of credit information subjects. The ECB reiterates its recommendation for including a reference to the need to identify legal persons in complian ce with international or European standards, in 
order to facilitate cross-border access and use,  provided that confidentiality is protected 
appropriately. In this regard, the ECB also r ecommends the use of a unique identifier for all 
natural and legal persons as well as for each loan agreement. 
3.3 The ECB recommends the substitution of ‘a ny value-added tax registration number’ in 
Section 6(3)(d) with ‘the value-added tax regist ration number’ or ‘all valu e-added tax registration 
numbers’ in order to avoid any ambiguity. 
 4. Access to the register 4.1 The ECB notes that Section 16 of the draft law contains details of those who may access the 
register. The ECB recommends a general referenc e in this section to, e.g. the ‘competent 
authorities’ who may access the register, which acce ss rights would be subject to change by order 
of the CBI or the Minister. 
4.2 The ECB welcomes the fact that the draft law lists parties who have the power and the duty to 
access the information on the CCR, but reiterates th at a reference to the tasks performed by the 
ESCB under Article 5 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank would be useful. 
                                                 
3  See paragraph 2.3 of Opinion CON/2012/52 and paragraph 4 of CON/2012/74. 
4  See Section 25 of the draft law. 
ECB-PUBLIC  
3 4.3 The draft law restricts access to informati on on the CCR to CISs for the purpose of accessing 
information relating to the CIS, to CIPs in the context of credit applications and credit 
agreements, and to the CBI for the purposes of meeting its statutory obl igations or functions. 
Under the draft law in its current form, other NCBs operating a CCR will be able to access 
information on the CCR only in circumstances wher e the CBI, under its obligations and functions 
as part of the ESCB, is required to provide su ch data. The ECB recommends that those granted 
access to information on the CCR are expanded to include NCBs operating CCRs, similar to the provisions set out in the ‘Memorandum of Unde rstanding on the exchange of information among 
national CCRs for the purpose of passing it on to reporting institutions’ (MoU)
5. The MoU 
provides a framework for the regular exchange of information among nati onal CCRs and allows a 
CIP to obtain a more complete overview of th e indebtedness of a borrower on a cross-border 
basis. 
 5. Compatibility of registers The CBI will have the power to collect and record  credit information in respect of CISs, including 
registered insolvency information, namely (a ) Debt Relief Certificates; (b) Debt Settlement 
Arrangements; and (c) Personal Inso lvency Arrangements registered  in accordance with the Personal 
Insolvency Act 2012
6. The ECB recommends requiring the Insolv ency Service to provide the registered 
insolvency information to the CBI for inclusion on the CCR. In addition, such registered insolvency 
information, as well as any information from othe r registers to be included on the CCR, should be 
provided in a manner consistent with  the format and scope of the CCR, to ensure a level of consistency 
and compatibility across these registers. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 21 December 2012. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI 
                                                 
5  Available on the ECB’s we bsite at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
6  The Personal Insolvency Bill 2012 was passed by the Dáil (low er house of the Irish Parliament) on 7 November 2012 and 
is currently being debated in the Seanad (upper house of th e Irish parliament). The ECB und erstands that the Insolvency 
Service will be responsible under the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 for the main tenance of the insolvency registers 
established under that Act.