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Credit Register

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 March 2021

Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Questions (86)

Catherine Connolly

Question:

86. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Finance if a loan holder who enters into a loan restructuring agreement with a lender that honours that agreement in full and has never missed a repayment under the agreement and has cleared the loan is considered to have an imperfect credit history on the Central Credit Register; if his attention has been drawn to discrepancies between the credit reports issued by the Central Credit Register and the Irish Credit Bureau particularly in respect of loans which were subject to restructuring agreements prior to the establishment of the Central Credit Register; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17152/21]

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Written answers

The Central Credit Register (CCR) is established by the Central Bank under the Credit Reporting Act 2013. Under the Act lenders are obliged to report personal and credit information to the CCR for loans of €500 or more, and are obliged to seek a credit report in respect of loan applications for €2,000 or more.

The Central Bank advises that the submission of information to the CCR was implemented on a phased basis, commencing with consumer loans (credit cards, mortgages, personal loans and overdrafts) on 30 June 2017. In March 2018, moneylender loans, local authority loans and business loans were added. Finally, hire purchase, PCP and similar type finance were added in June 2019. Lenders commenced reporting factual information from the relevant date for each product type. Any credit performance history that pre-dates these implementation dates is not included on the CCR.

The submission of information to the CCR must be consistent with the credit arrangements agreed and in accordance with lenders obligations under the Credit Reporting Act 2013, and this may include details in respect of restructures if agreed by the parties. For active loans (ones where payments are being made, or are expected to be made), lenders will be provided with performance data for the most recent 24 months on a credit report.

For a closed loan (one where all payments have been discharged, or the loan closed off by the lender), a lender will see the final two years of payment performance information. When the oldest information reaches five years old, each separate entry will be deleted month by month thereafter. The closed loan information will be completely removed from the credit report five years after the last payment was made.

The CCR produces credit reports based on factual information submitted by lenders. It does not comment on the payment history, or provide any opinion on the content of the credit report, or provide guidance or instruction as to how a lender should interpret or act based on the content of the report. Also, the CCR does not produce credit scores or ratings. The CCR does not decide or determine if a credit application is approved or not; that is and remains a commercial decision of the lender considering the credit application.

In relation to the ICB, that is an independent commercial entity and is outside the remit of the Central Bank. However, if a person is of the opinion that data held on the ICB is not accurate or up to date that person can make a complaint to the Data Protection Commission.

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