Opinion of the European Central Bank of 19 December 2013 on the credit register (CON/2013/93)
Date: 2013-12-19
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Latvia, credit, data collection, database, financial solvency, national law

EN 

ECB-PUBLIC 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 19 December 2013 

on the credit register 

(CON/2013/93) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On 22 November 2013, 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 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 law relates to Latvijas Banka. 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  register2  (hereinafter  the  ‘Law’)  provides  financial  institutions  with 

additional  possibilities  for  assessing  the  creditworthiness  of  their  customers  and  promotes 

responsible  lending  and  borrowing.  The  Law  enables:  (a)  the  Financial  and  Capital  Markets 

Commission (FCMC) to obtain data required for the supervision of financial market participants; 

(b)  Latvijas  Banka  to  use  credit  register  data  for  statistical  purposes;  and  (c)  both  institutions  to 

obtain data for macroeconomic analysis. The Law also allows these institutions to share this data 

with domestic and foreign institutions. The credit register is operated by Latvijas Banka. 

1.2  The purpose of the draft law is, inter alia, to broaden the objectives of the Law by ‘contributing to 

the fulfilment of the tasks of the European System of Central Banks’ (ESCB), and to allow Latvijas 

Banka and the FCMC to provide credit register data to the institutions of the European Union for 

the purposes stipulated in the Law. 

2. 

Specific observations 

2.1  The ECB welcomes the explicit authorisation for Latvian authorities to provide credit register data 

to, inter alia, institutions of the Union, and the fact that the draft law specifically provides that one 

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2  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
The  ECB  was  consulted  on  the Law  and  issued  Opinion  CON/2011/47.  All  ECB opinions  are  available  on  the ECB’s 
website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
ECB-PUBLIC 

of the objectives of the  Law is to contribute to the tasks of the  ESCB. The ECB notes that these 

provisions will allow the data collected in the Latvian credit register to be shared with the ECB and 

other institutions of the Union listed in Article 13 of the Treaty on the European Union and, in this 

context, will support the ESCB tasks laid down in Article 127 of the Treaty on the Functioning of 

the European Union, including the task laid down in Article 127(5) of that Treaty, i.e. the ESCB’s 

contribution to the smooth conduct of policies pursued by the competent authorities relating to the 

prudential supervision of credit institutions and the stability of the financial system. 

2.2  The  ECB  understands  that  the  draft  law  also  allows  data  from  the  Latvian  credit  register  to  be 
shared with other bodies and agencies of the Union3, such as the European Systemic Risk Board, 

the European Banking Authority and other relevant bodies established at Union level, such as the 

European Stability Mechanism and the future European Single Resolution Mechanism. 

2.3  The reference to ESCB tasks in Article 2 of the draft law could be complemented with an explicit 

reference to the tasks conferred on the ECB in the area of prudential supervision, such as the tasks 
referred to in Council Regulation (EU) No 1024/20134. 

2.4  Currently,  Eurosystem  central  banks  are  examining  the  feasibility  of  introducing,  in  the  longer 

term,  harmonised  arrangements  for  collecting  and  exchanging  granular  credit  data  within  the 
Eurosystem. This may be achieved by way of specific ECB legal acts5. Such arrangements will also 

apply to Latvijas Banka on its entry into the Eurosystem, and further adjustments of the Law might 

be required. 

2.5  Finally, the ECB reiterates that other relevant national regulations already in force may also need to 

be amended in line with the above considerations6. 

This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 19 December 2013. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Mario DRAGHI 

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4  

5  

6  

The ECB understands that the Latvian term ‘institutions’ used in Article 3 of the draft law encompasses any institutions, 
bodies and agencies. 
Council  Regulation  (EU)  No  1024/2013  of  15  October  2013  conferring  specific  tasks  on  the  European  Central  Bank 
concerning policies relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions (OJ L 287, 29.10.2013, p. 63). 
For example ECB legal acts complementing the Memorandum of Understanding on the exchange of information among 
national  central  credit  registers  for  the  purpose  of  passing  it  on  to  reporting  institutions,  published  in  April  2010  and 
available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
See Opinion CON/2011/47, paragraph 3.4, where a reference is made to the detailed regulation of Latvijas Banka on the 
content  of  data  to  be  included  in  and  provided  from  the  credit  register  as  well  as  the  procedure  for  submitting  and 
receiving data. 

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