EUROPEAN COMMISSION  
Brussels, 31.1.20 20 
SEC(2020) 371 final 
 REGULATORY SCRUTINY BOARD OPINION  
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL  
on the implementation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers  
{SWD( 2020) 254 final} 
{SWD( 2020) 255 final } 

 
 ________________________________  
This opinion concerns a draft evaluation, which may differ from the final version. 
Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles - Belgium. Office: BERL 08/405. E-mail: regulatory-scrutiny-board@ec.europa.eu  EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
Regulatory Scrutiny Board 
 
Brussels,  
Ares (2020) 
Opinion 
Title: Evaluation of the Consumer Credit Directive (2008/48/EC) 
Overall opinion: POSITIVE 
(A) Policy context 
The EU adopted the current Consumer Credit Directive in 2008. The Directive obliges 
lenders to disclose key information to potential borrowers. Lenders must also assess 
borrowers’ creditworthiness. Borrowers have a cooling-off period during which they can 
back out of a loan for any reason. The Directive also provides borrowers with rights to 
repay loans early. 
The legislation requires a review every five years. This evaluation also responds to a 
REFIT platform opinion about disclosure obligations in advertisements.  
This evaluation explains how Member States have implemented the Directive, and 
analyses whether it remains fit for purpose. The evaluation identifies shortcomings and 
aspects for further consideration.  
 
(B) Summary of findings 
The Board finds the report to be comprehensive, informative and reader-friendly.  
The Board gives a positive opinion . The Board also considers that the report should  
further improve with respect to the following aspects:   
(1) The main conclusions do not adequately capture and draw lessons from some 
important issues that emerge from the analysis. Limitations and uncertainties of 
the analysis are not made sufficiently clear.   
(2) The report does not sufficiently explain the significance of low levels of cross 
border consumer credits and obstacles for the internal market. The need for EU-
level measures is not clear.  
(3) The report does not sufficiently balance consultation findings against statistical 
data from other sources.    
 
  
Ref. Ares(2020)619470 - 31/01/2020
 
2 
 (C) What to improve 
(1) The conclusions and executive summary should better bring out key insights and 
lessons learned from this evaluation exercise. The report should focus attention on core 
elements of the Directive and on areas where findings raise issues for policy makers and 
future political choices. It should draw clearer conclusions with regard to issues raised in 
the REFIT platform opinion. The report could also conclude more prominently on its 
findings on creditworthiness assessments. It could be more consistent in evaluating its 
double role in providing access to foreign credit markets and protecting consumers from 
over-borrowing. 
(2) The evaluation provides evidence that there has been little progress towards achieving 
the internal market objective. It attributes this failure to obstacles outside the scope of the 
Directive. The report should more clearly set out the problems that the absence of an 
internal market in consumer credit causes, and why EU action is more appropriate than 
national regulation to address these problems. 
(3) The report should better describe the current state of the market for consumer credit in 
different EU Member States. It could also distinguish more clearly between banks and non-
bank providers. The report would benefit from more data (on types of products, market 
volumes, interest rates, consumer complaints, etc.) at Member State level to improve the 
market description and to qualify findings, including on the potential for cross border 
credit. 
(4) The report should be more transparent about limitations and uncertainties of the data 
and analysis. It should better explain how it arrived at quantitative estimates of the 
benefits, and indicate how reliable those estimates are. 
Some more technical comments have been sent directly to the author DG.  
 
(D) Conclusion 
The DG must take these recommendations into account before launching the 
interservice consultation.  
Full title Evaluation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreement for 
consumers 
Reference number PLAN/2018/3118 
Submitted to RSB on 20/12/2019 
Date of RSB meeting 29/01/2020 
 
Electronically signed on 31/01/2020 15:03 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563