Opinion of the European Central Bank of 8 March 2011 on the Central Corporate Credit Register (CON/2011/20)
Date: 2011-03-08
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Belgium, credit institution, disclosure of information, financial stability, national law, trade credit

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 (ECB) 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 Register (hereinafter the ‘draft law’) and a draft 

royal decree on the Central Corporate Credit Register (hereinafter the ‘draft royal decree’) (the draft law 

and the draft royal decree hereinafter collectively 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 indent 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 NBB. 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 legislation 

1.1  The  draft  legislation  will  amend  the  current  legal  framework  for  the  Central  Corporate  Credit 
Register (CCCR)2, under which credit institutions established 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 draft legislation is twofold: (a) as shown during the 

financial  crisis,  a  comprehensive  and  efficient  centralisation  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 

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OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
Centrale  voor  kredieten  aan  ondernemingen/Centrale  des  crédits  aux  enterprises.  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. 
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 services, with respect to credit insurance and suretyship insurance 
agreements (Article 2 of the Royal Decree of 12 December 1994). 
Explanatory memorandum to the draft law, pp. 1 and 2. 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
that a consensus was reached with the current and prospective reporting institutions concerning the 

increase in the amount of data subject to CCCR reporting requirements.  

1.2  The main changes introduced by the draft legislation in the current legal framework relate to: 

(a) 

the  addition  of  leasing  and  factoring  companies  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  the  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 broadening 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 
management12,  as  well  as  risk  assessment  for  the  financial  sector  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 

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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  reported  to  the  CCCR  concerns  leasing  and  factoring  agreements 
concluded with Belgian residents in the context of their professional activities. 
I.e.  credit  agreements,  leasing  agreements,  factoring  agreements,  suretyship  insurance  agreements  and  credit  insurance 
agreements.  
Articles 3 and 4 of the draft law, further specified in Article 1, 3° and Articles 3 and 4 of the draft royal decree. 
Payment  default  is  defined  as  (a)  the  absence  of  reimbursement  by  the  beneficiary  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 defines which amount is to be reported as payment default in these 
two cases. See also Article 3 §2, 5° of the draft royal decree. 
Article 3 §2, 2° of the draft royal decree. 
I.e.  the  total  amount  that  the  reporting  institution  considers  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). 
Article 3 §2, 4° of the draft royal decree. 
The right to consult the CCCR is open to all reporting institutions (Article 9 §1 1° of the draft law).  
Commissie voor het Bank-, Financie- en Assurantiewezen/Commission bancaire, financière 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  published  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.  
This task is laid down in Article 12 of the Law of 22 February 1998 establishing the organic status of the Nationale Bank 
van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique. The draft law expressly allows the NBB to use the data recorded in the CCCR 

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draft law allowing the NBB to also use the information 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 entities16, as is already the case under the CCCR’s current legal 
framework17. As regards the financing of such tasks performed by the NBB, the 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  Central  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  authorises  the  NBB  to  charge  the  costs  related  to  the 

collection,  storage,  management,  checking  and  dissemination  of  CCCR  data  to  the  reporting 
institutions19.  

3.2  The  ECB  understands  that  the  requirements  arising  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 personal 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  statistical  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 context of its tasks carried out under the Law of 22 February 1998 
(Article 16 of the draft law). 
Article 16 of the draft law. 
See in particular Articles 3, 6 and 9 of the draft law. 
See in particular Articles 91 and 92 of the Law of 22 March 1993. 
See the ECB’s Convergence Report, May 2010, p. 21, and in particular Opinion CON/2011/5, paragraph 3.1.  
Article 17 of the draft law. 
OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31. 

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