WHAT IS A CREDIT BUREAU IN ROMANIA?
The Credit Bureau is a private institution that manages a database in which information is stored on the lending activity carried out by financial-banking institutions, authorized by law, and which processes data on individuals who apply for or obtain credit.
The main activity of the Credit Bureau consists in the collection and processing of data on individuals: debtors, co-debtors, guarantors or credit applicants and the management of this database organized in a centralized system with the purpose of identifying and quantifying credit risk, mitigating the risk of fraud and protecting creditors.
CREDIT BUREAU QUERY
Participants can query the Credit Bureau’s database when they are requested to grant a credit product or when monitoring the behavior of their own borrowers.
Thus, the Credit Bureau’s database can be consulted by credit institutions, non-banking financial institutions, insurance companies and debt collection companies that have concluded a Contract with the Credit Bureau.
Likewise, any natural person has the legal right to make a check on their own situation registered with the Credit Bureau, by means of a written request concerning their personal data, pursuant to Article 15 of Regulation 679/2016 (General Data Protection Regulation).
“I WANT CREDIT BUT I AM IN THE CREDIT BUREAU” – WHAT SOLUTIONS DO YOU HAVE IN ROMANIA?
Given that the history in the Credit Bureau’s database can be both positive and negative, the fact that a person’s data is registered with this institution does not automatically equate to the impossibility to take out a credit.
On the contrary, if the credit history is positive, the person is more likely to be granted credit by an institution.
Negative credit history refers to situations in which individuals have taken out a loan and are late with an installment. In this case, arrears are only reported to the Credit Bureau if the delay exceeds 30 calendar days and if the amount overdue exceeds 10 lei, and banks are obliged to notify the customer at least 15 days before the arrears are reported.
Persons with a negative history in the Credit Bureau’s database also include those who have committed any offense against a financial institution associated with the Credit Bureau and for which final court decisions have been issued in this regard, as well as those who have provided statements that were untrue at the time of the application for a credit.
However, as I have already mentioned, the fact that a person appears in the Credit Bureau’s database, even with a negative credit history, does not mean that that person cannot obtain a credit from a financial banking institution. Alternatively, you can apply for a credit from a non-bank financial institution that grants credit without a credit bureau inquiry.
HOW LONG DO YOU STAY IN THE CREDIT BUREAU IN ROMANIA?
In principle, the information recorded in the Credit Bureau’s database remains stored for a period of 4 years, calculated from the date of finalization of the active credit. On expiry of this period, the data will be automatically deleted.
However, the information in the Credit Bureau’s database may also be deleted after a shorter period of time, in the context of data subjects requesting the deletion of the recorded data pursuant to Article 17 of GDPR Regulation 679/2016.
CREDIT BUREAU ERASURE – THE LAW ALLOWING ERASURE FROM THE CREDIT BUREAU IN ROMANIA
The regulation allowing the erasure of data recorded in the Credit Bureau’s database is the General Data Protection Regulation 679/2016.
According to art. (1) of this Regulation: ‘(1)The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or her without undue delay, and the controller shall be obliged to erase personal data without undue delay if one of the following grounds applies:
(a) the personal data are no longer necessary for the purposes for which they were collected or processed;
(b) the data subject withdraws his or her consent on the basis of which the processing is taking place in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) or Article 9(2)(a) and there is no other legal basis for the processing;
(c) the data subject objects to the processing pursuant to Article 21(1) and there are no legitimate grounds for the processing which override the processing or the data subject objects to the processing pursuant to Article 21(2);
(d) personal data have been processed unlawfully;
(e) the personal data must be erased in order to comply with a legal obligation of the controller under Union or national law to which the controller is subject;
(f) the personal data were collected in connection with the provision of information society services referred to in Article 8(1).”
Where the controller has made personal data public and is required by the abovementioned legal provisions to erase the personal data, the controller shall, taking into account the available technology and the cost of implementation, take reasonable steps, including technical measures, to inform the controllers processing the personal data that the data subject has requested the erasure by those controllers of any links to those data or of any copies or reproductions of those personal data.
