FAQ

Yes, to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The Statistics Act 1993 provides that the CSO may obtain information from public bodies including the Central Bank. Such transfers of information are also permitted under data protection law. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was performed in advance of this transfer.

The CSO is Ireland's national statistical office and its purpose is to impartially collect, analyse and make available statistics about Ireland’s people, society and economy. More information is available at www.cso.ie.

Personal data held on the Central Credit Register includes your name, date of birth, address, gender, telephone number and personal public service number (PPSN). Your PPSN, Eircode and contact telephone number is not transferred to the CSO.

Credit data held on the Central Credit Register includes the loan type, such as mortgage, credit card, overdraft, personal loan, business loan, HP, PCP etc; the amount borrowed and the amount outstanding.

The Central Bank is the data controller for the Central Credit Register and the obligations of the General Data Protection Directive and Data Protection law apply.

The CSO is the data controller for the information when it is transferred and the obligations of the General Data Protection Directive and Data Protection law apply then to the CSO.

The CSO will use the information for statistical purposes and reporting only. No details that might be related to an identifiable person may be divulged to any other government department or body.

A Memorandum of Understanding is in place between the Central Bank and the CSO regarding the governance and use of the data and is available on our Uses of CCR Data Page in the Publications area.

Your lender is responsible for the accuracy of the data that they send to the Central Credit Register. While it is in their possession, they are a data controller under Data Protection law. 

The Central Credit Register relies on lenders to transfer data that is accurate, complete and up to date.

Once the data is received by the Central Credit Register the Central Bank of Ireland becomes the data controller.

We will respond within 20 days, and may extend the period to 40 days before getting back to you with a decision if we need to contact your lender or seek further information from you.

Follow the instructions in our factsheet 'how to request an amendment to my information' available on our publications page

Yes. The Credit Reporting Act 2013 and the Regulations provide the legal basis for the collection and processing of personal information, including PPSNs.

In addition, the Central Bank of Ireland consulted with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in advance of publishing the Regulations.  The Central Bank of Ireland is also listed as a specified body in Schedule 5 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 when carrying out its functions in relation to the Central Credit Register.

Each time you or a lender accesses your credit report, a footprint is created. A footprint is a record of the date, the lender name (or CIS enquiry if it's you), and the reason why that particular lender sought your credit report.

The footprint is shown at the end of the report for a period of five years after a lender last requested access.

Information submitted by your lender(s) each month is used to create a credit report which is stored on the Central Credit Register. This information will be released only when a lender or the borrower to whom the information relates requests access; if the borrower to whom the information relates, consents to the release of this information to another person;
as provided by the Credit Reporting Act 2013, the Data Protection Act 2018 or as required or permitted by law or any other applicable legislation.

The Central Bank may also transfer information to state agencies and law enforcement bodies when it is considered necessary and proportionate to do so.

The Central Credit Register supports the Central Bank’s obligations and functions, including consumer protection, supervising the financial sector and ensuring financial stability. The Central Bank may use any pseudonymised information held on the Central Credit Register in the performance of any of its functions.

For more information see our data protection statement.

No information on bankruptcy, or OTHER personal insolvency arrangements is contained on the Central Credit Register. If the bankruptcy or insolvency process resulted in a loan being written off, the lender will most likely report than loan as “written off”. Information on this loan will remain on your credit report in line with our retention periods. If the process did not result in loan(s) being written off by a lender, then it may be correct for the lender to continue to report the loan(s) as an active loan to the Central Credit Register.

So, while it may not be possible for the lender to pursue you for repayment of a loan following your discharge from bankruptcy or any other personal insolvency arrangement, lenders may still be obliged to submit information to the Central Credit Register for that loan.

You can read more about retention periods.

You may wish to take separate legal advice on this matter or refer to the Insolvency Service of Ireland for further information at www.isi.gov.ie.

Under the Credit Reporting Act 2013, lenders are obliged to submit credit and personal information on loans of €500 or more where the loan is still active. In other words, where payments are being made or are expected to be made.  

Credit information includes positive credit information, for example that a payment has been made; and negative credit information, for example that a payment has not been made. This information is submitted by your lender in order to build your credit history and create your credit report.

In addition, lenders are obliged to report the credit status of each loan. The credit status will indicate for example, if there has been any legal action taken, an overdraft cancelled, or a credit card revoked. It will also indicate if there has been a settlement or write-off of a debt. Finally it will also record if there has been a repossession or voluntary surrender of an asset. If none of the above apply, this is marked ‘n/a’.

While it may be possible that a lender is statute barred from pursuing a borrower for repayment of a loan, the passage of time does not erase the actual debt, and the loan may still be reported to the Central Credit Register.

From time to time, Credit Information Providers (lenders) may sell off loans to other lenders. This means that a loan will then be reported by a new Credit Information Provider. This will result in a change of name from the original Credit Information Provider to the new Credit Information Provider on your credit report.

In addition, institutions may merge or be taken over, and this also will result in a change of name from the Credit Information Provider to the new Credit Information Provider.

In both examples, the new Credit Information Provider is obliged to report information to the Central Credit Register, including their name.

The Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code sets out the conditions under which such transfers should be notified to consumers. You can find information on the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code here. 

See the full list of Credit Information Providers who submit information to the Central Credit Register.

A credit report is created only from the information that is submitted by each Credit Information Provider. The Central Credit Register does not have access to any supporting documentation relating to any loan, such as loan application forms or terms and conditions. If you require more information regarding the transfer of your loan, you should refer directly to the Credit Information Provider named on your credit report.

No, the Central Credit Register does not score, grade or rate credit reports.

Your lender will make a decision on your loan application based on their own credit policy.

Credit report provided to lenders form a key, but not the sole, input to support creditworthiness assessments as part of their lending decisions. 

Lenders may have regard to other information not collected on the Central Credit Register in making their creditworthiness assessments, including, but not limited to, details of a borrowers assets, income, outgoings and other expenses. 

You can make an application here, or please see our factsheets on our publications page.

Loans are included on the Central Credit Register if the loan is for €500 or more and:

• the borrower lives in the State at the time of applying for a loan or
• the loan agreement or loan application is governed by Irish law.

Find out more information on what is included on the Central Credit Register.

Once your online application is submitted, you will receive an email acknowledging your application. Your reference number will be contained in this email, so please keep this information secure.

To avoid delays when making your application, please make sure, that all your documentation is in order such as your signed application form and valid identification documentation. See the list of acceptable documentation here.

We cannot accept documentation from external drive sites (e.g. Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox). If you are unable to upload your documents through our website, please email us at myrequest@centralcreditregister.ie with documentation attached in PDF or JPEG format.

Your application then joins a queue to be checked and once your application has been accepted, it will be sent for processing. We will only contact you if any documentation is missing, out of date or illegible. Please check your spam or junk folder regularly as some email providers may automatically move the email there.

Using the personal information provided by you, a search will be performed on the Central Credit Register. If no credit report is identified, you will be advised by email to the email address you have provided.

If a credit report is identified, then you will receive an email with a link to your credit report. For individuals this can be accessed by inputting your reference number and your PPSN. The link will remain valid for 30 days.

For companies this can be accessed by inputting your reference number and your password. Your password is provided to you by way of a separate email. The password and link will remain valid for 30 days.

The Central Credit Register will accept digitally signed application forms. You may submit a completed application form with a recognisable digital signature however plain text or cursive font will not be accepted. The signature must match the signature supplied on your identification document.

Alternatively, you may upload a note (in PDF or JPEG format) which includes:

• Reference number contained on your application form
• Handwritten signature
• Date of signature

You will also need identification documents to proceed with your request.

 You should provide your current address, and your most recent address and any other address you believe is associated with any loans you have or may have had.

Borrowers who are individuals can submit a request for their credit report at any time free of charge, subject to such requests not being excessive as per the General Data Protection Regulation. This is called 'fair usage'. Borrowers who are not individuals (for example companies) may submit a request for a credit report once a year free of charge. There will be a charge of €6.35 for any subsequent request within the year.

The Central Bank is responsible for the operation of the Central Credit Register under the Credit Reporting Act 2013. Under the Act lenders are required to submit personal and credit information to the Central Credit Register every month.

In order to produce full and accurate credit reports, the Central Bank expects that all lenders comply with their reporting obligations under the Act. This includes having in place robust policies and procedures to ensure all data submitted to the Central Credit Register is accurate, complete and up to date.  

Lenders may find that information which was not accurate, complete or up to date was reported to the Central Credit Register in error. If this happens, the Central Bank requires that we are notified of the error and further expects that such errors are corrected as a matter of priority by the lender.

Lenders may under data protection provisions also be required to write to you explaining what has happened and what action they have taken to correct the errors. This may also require a report being made to the Data Protection Commission by the lender and at the Central Bank.

You can apply for your credit report free of charge (subject to fair usage).

Further information is available on our data protection page or visit www.dataprotection.ie. You can also submit a complaint directly to the Data Protection Commission at www.dataprotection.ie.

If you believe your personal information (name, address, date of birth, PPSN, address(es))  or your credit information (anything in the Contract Data area or the Performance Data area of your credit report) is incorrect, incomplete or not up to date you may request an amendment with your lender directly or request an amendment to the Central Credit Register You can start your online application here.

In the normal course of events, if regular principal and interest payments were being made, the amount recorded in the “Outstanding Balance” column reported to the Central Credit Register would decrease each month. See sample credit report.

If, for example, a lender had agreed a payment break with no payments expected to be made at all for a period of three months, starting April, then:

• The lender will not report any “Number of payments past due” to the Central Credit Register for April, May and June;
• The lender will not report a “restructure” event to the Central Credit Register for April, May and June;
• As no payments are being made during the payment break period, the “Outstanding Balance” recorded will not decrease for April, May and June.

A lender viewing a credit report will see the most recent 24 months of credit history in relation to each loan contained on the credit report. This will include the “Outstanding Balance” column.

While there is no payment break flag or data field contained in the credit report, it would be possible to infer from this information the period for which a payment break was likely in operation as the outstanding balance will not decrease.