Central Bank of Malta revises Central Credit Register directives to expand reporting scope and permit anonymised data products by credit reference agencies

The Central Bank of Malta has amended Directive No. 14 on the Central Credit Register and Directive No. 15 on the supervision of credit reference agencies, updating reporting scope and the permitted use of Central Credit Register data. Under the CCRv2 project, the revised Directive No. 14 expands the list of Central Credit Register reporting institutions to include financial institutions and financial vehicle corporations that hold exposures meeting at least one of the criteria set out in the Directive. Newly designated reporting institutions will begin reporting after a preparatory period of up to six months from publication, during which they are expected to establish the operational, technical and compliance arrangements needed to meet the requirements; once the preparatory period ends, the Directive No. 14 reporting obligations apply to all reporting institutions. The amended Directive No. 15 allows credit reference agencies to use anonymised granular data provided by the Bank to develop or provide creditworthiness-assessment related products, including for benchmarking and monitoring, provided the agencies publicly disclose the methodologies used to issue those products. Both Directives were also revised to reflect technological developments and rising demand for data, with the aim of improving data collection and dissemination for creditworthiness assessment of prospective and existing counterparties.