8.4.2014   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 104/72

(1)

Granular credit data comprise individual items of information about creditexposures of credit institutions or other loan-providing financialinstitutions vis-à-vis borrowers. Non-aggregated data of this type may becollected, subject to adequate confidentiality safeguards, on aborrower-by-borrower or loan-by-loan basis from credit registers operated bythe national central banks (NCBs) of the European System of Central Banks(ESCB) (hereinafter ‘central credit registers’ or ‘CCRs’), or from other granular data sources,including credit registers, or alternative statistical collections. A numberof NCBs that operate CCRs share granular credit data with each other for thepurpose of passing such data on to reporting institutions and facilitating amore comprehensive overview of the indebtedness of borrowers (2).

(2)

Article 5 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of theEuropean Central Bank (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) specifies that, in order toundertake the tasks of the ESCB, the European Central Bank (ECB), assistedby the NCBs of the ESCB, collects the necessary statistical informationeither from competent national authorities or directly from economic agents.Moreover, Article 8(5) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 allows the ECB todecide on the collection and transmission, to the extent and level of detailnecessary, within the ESCB of confidential information originally collectedfor purposes other than those of Article 5 of the Statute of the ESCB,provided that this is necessary for the efficient development or productionof statistics or for increasing their quality, and that these statistics arenecessary for the performance of the tasks of the ESCB referred to in theTreaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

(3)

Granular credit data based on CCRs and other available credit data sourcesare necessary for: (a) the development and production of new ESCB statisticsin areas such as statistics on impaired assets, provisioning for impairedassets and revaluation reserves and statistics on loans to non-financialcorporations, broken down by the size of the corporations concerned; (b)increasing the quality of existing ESCB statistics in areas such asstatistics on credit lines broken down by counterparty sector, on loans tonon-financial corporations broken down by economic activity, and on loansbacked by real-estate collateral. These new or improved statistics to beproduced in the long term are necessary for the performance of Eurosystemtasks including monetary policy analysis and monetary policy operations,risk management, financial stability surveillance and research, as well asthe Eurosystem's contribution to the smooth conduct of policies pursued bythe competent authorities relating to the prudential supervision of creditinstitutions and the stability of the financial system.

(4)

A long-term framework for the collection of granular credit data based onharmonised ECB statistical reporting requirements should be set out in anECB legal instrument to be adopted under Article 5 of the Statute of theESCB, which should be submitted to the Governing Council in due time so asto ensure that by the end of 2016: (a) national granular credit databaseswill be operated by all Eurosystem NCBs in accordance with specified minimumstandards developed during the preparatory phase, and (b) a common granularcredit database shared between the Eurosystem members and comprising inputdata for all Member States whose currency is the euro will be established onthe basis of such national granular credit databases, with the aim ofensuring, in a stepwise manner, the availability of credit statisticsnecessary for the performance of Eurosystem tasks, including in particularcontributing to the smooth conduct of policies pursued by the competentauthorities relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutionsand the stability of the financial system. This long-term ECB legalinstrument should also define the date, no later than the date specifiedabove, from which the collection of granular credit data based on harmonisedECB statistical reporting requirements should commence. Although a broaddesign of the content of the future granular credit data to be collectedunder such harmonised ECB statistical reporting requirements is set out inthe reference reporting scheme annexed to this Decision, the exact scope andcontent of the data to be collected under the long-term framework is stillto be defined. Preparations for the establishment of this long-termframework will be carried out through preparatory measures implemented underthis Decision that have the following aims: (a) definition of a core groupof harmonised granular credit data sets that are to be provided to the ECBby the NCBs in the long term, (b) identification and evaluation of relevantuser needs concerning the application of granular credit data within theESCB in the long term, (c) estimation of related costs generated bycollection, quality assurance and data sharing procedures, (d) gradualelimination of data gaps related to incompleteness or lack of granularcredit databases in some Member States, (e) definition of the appropriategovernance and organisational aspects for the operation of the long-termframework, and (f) ensuring better interoperability and data reuse amongCCRs, credit registers and other relevant credit databases meeting thequality criteria.

(5)

The Statistics Committee (hereinafter the ‘STC’) of the ESCB should bemandated by the Governing Council to assist it in the implementation ofthese preparatory measures. The STC should in particular organise the annualtransmission from the NCBs to the ECB of available granular credit data aspart of the process of ensuring proper alignment of such granular creditdata to be collected in the long term with the prospective ESCB user needs.For this purpose, ESCB users not benefiting from the derogation underArticle 3(3) of this Decision may be granted access to confidentialstatistical information derived from any granular credit data transmitted tothe ECB until a long-term framework is implemented, in accordance with therelevant confidentiality safeguards.

(6)

Equal treatment of individual NCBs should be the guiding principleunderpinning the preparatory measures for the long-term framework. Thenecessary minimum criteria as regards the scope, the upper and lower boundsof layers or strata across the borrowers' population and the other possiblebreakdowns, the level of detail of data attributes and the quality ofcollected granular credit data shall be proposed to the Governing Councilfor all Eurosystem NCBs in the course of the preparatory phase. Disparitiesbetween data sets delivered by individual NCBs will be identified andprogressively reduced through adjustments introduced with subsequent datadeliveries made under this Decision. At the same time, certain EurosystemNCBs may require a longer phase-in period in the preparatory phase fordeveloping or obtaining access to comprehensive granular credit databases.These NCBs should, during the preparatory phase, be permitted to benefitfrom temporary derogations from the obligation to apply specific preparatorymeasures developed by the STC, provided that the period of each specificderogation is strictly limited to the minimum time necessary for the NCBconcerned to achieve during the preparatory phase compliance with thepreparatory measures covered by the derogation, and that such period is inany event set in a manner that allows the objectives laid down in Article 1to be achieved in relation to all Eurosystem NCBs.

(7)

In accordance with the case law of the Court of Justice of the EuropeanUnion, both the Treaties and the law adopted by the Union on the basis ofthe Treaties have primacy over the national law of Member States, under theconditions laid down by that case law (3). Accordingly, implementation of this Decision will not result in abreach of provisions of national law imposing specific confidentiality orreciprocity requirements in relation to cross-border sharing of datacollected through CCRs.

(8)

It is necessary to set up a procedure to carry out technical amendments tothe Annex to this Decision in an effective manner, provided that suchamendments neither change the underlying conceptual framework nor affect thereporting burden. NCBs may propose such technical amendments to the Annexthrough the STC, whose view will be taken into account when following thisprocedure.

(9)

The provisions of this Decision may be extended to apply to the NCBs ofMember States whose currency is not the euro by means of those NCBs enteringinto cooperation with the Eurosystem central banks on the basis of an ECBrecommendation,

(1)

‘central credit register’ (CCR) means a creditregister operated by an NCB of the ESCB;

(2)

‘credit register’ means a register that collectsgranular credit data from reporting institutions;

(3)

‘granular credit data’ means information about creditexposures of credit institutions or other loan-providing financialinstitutions vis-à-vis borrowers, provided on a borrower-by-borroweror a loan-by-loan basis.

(a)

identifying relevant user needs and estimating related costsgenerated by proposals for the collection, quality assurance anddata sharing procedures to be applied in the long term;

(b)

defining and improving the granular credit data sets to becollected under the long-term framework, in particular regardingthe scope, the bounds of layers or strata in the borrowerpopulation and the other possible breakdowns, the level ofdetail of the data attributes and the quality of granular datacollected;

(c)

organising the transmission of granular credit data in thepreparatory phase in accordance with Article 4 and setting thequality standards which granular credit data obtained from CCRsor other credit registers need to comply with prior to thecommencement of such transmission;

(d)

developing detailed operational arrangements specifyingtransmission, compilation, storage and use of the granularcredit data that are to be tested and fine-tuned in thepreparatory phase with a view to their subsequent incorporationin the long-term framework;

(e)

establishing a timetable for specific steps and deliverables tobe completed by the individual NCBs and the ECB, including stepsto be taken by the NCBs not presently having access tocomprehensive granular credit databases, with a view toobtaining such access through development of an own CCR or byother means;

(f)

monitoring the progress achieved in respect of the measureslisted in points (a) to (e), and identifying relevantadjustments if needed.