Opinion of the European Central Bank of 12 April 2017 on increasing the scope of data contained in the credit register (CON/2017/13)
Date: 2017-04-12
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Latvia, credit, data collection, financial stability, financial supervision, information system, national law, statistics

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/EC1, 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  providing  (i)  all  participants  in  the  credit  register2  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  Banka  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  

2  

3  
4  

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). 
Pursuant to Article 1(2) of the Law, participants include, inter 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. 

See Article 2 of the Law.  
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 

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 reported under Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13) 

is already available through the existing credit register, 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  will  be  collected  in  respect  of  foreign  branches 

registered  in  Latvia  of  credit  institutions  resident  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’  contained  in  Regulation  (EU)  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  instruments.  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 register as a source of information in order to 

enable  its  participants  to  better  assess  the  creditworthiness  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  context  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). 

2 

 
                                                 
ECB-PUBLIC 

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  databases6.  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 for 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  discharging  its  obligations  under  Regulation  (EU)  2016/867 

(ECB/2016/13).  Such  a  basis  is  required  because  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 loops7. 

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  
7  

See recital 16 together with Article 8(3) to (5) of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13). 

See recital 18 of Regulation (EU) 2016/867 (ECB/2016/13).  

3 

                                                 
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 

ECB-PUBLIC 

4