24 Jan The New Belgian Corporate Credit Register
| The law of 28 November 2021 (in force since 7 December) sets in place a new Corporate Credit Register designed to record all data relating to: – the financial instruments resulting from credit or leasing contracts; – the securities awarded, and – the counterparties linked to the said instruments and/or securities. This Register should allow the Belgian National Bank (BNB) to carry out its tasks of prudential supervision and banking stability. Since 1967, the BNB has been tasked with centralising all data on credits. For this purpose, it created the Central Corporate Credit Register (CCCR). However, the data collected by the CCCR and, most importantly, the way in which these were kept, were clearly insufficient. The new law now states that the BNB shall register all data relating to credit contracts, leasing contracts and the resulting payment defaults, as well as data relating to all parties involved in these contracts in the new Corporate Credit Register. The reporting agents must communicate these data to the BNB, in accordance with the provisions of the law and its implementing decrees. The BNB shall only be authorised to communicate the recorded data to the reporting agents (credit institutions and leasing companies), either prior to the conclusion of a contract within the framework of a risk assessment concerning a potential beneficiary or within the framework of the management of a contract. In contrast, under no circumstances shall the Register be consulted for commercial prospection or solicitation purposes. Each person is also allowed access to his/her own data and can make requests for the rectification of erroneous records. A Royal Decree has yet to be implemented in order to define what data will have to be communicated by the reporting agents. This piece of legislation shall also determine the frequency, the deadlines and the procedure regarding the communication and the updating of the data. For more information on this subject, please feel free to contact Virginie SCHOONHEYT. Best regards, The Cairn Legal team |