Retention of Information
Personal information stored on the Central Credit Register is removed when the last associated credit information has been deleted.
Credit information submitted by lenders in respect of new loan applications is held on the Central Credit Register for a period of 6 months from the date on which the information is entered on the Central Credit Register;
Credit information submitted by lenders in respect of loan agreements is held on the Central Credit Register for a maximum period of 5 years at any given time;
Where all liabilities under the loan agreement have been discharged, the credit information is held on the Central Credit Register for a period 5 years after the loan is discharged.
Personal information in the form of identification documents or contact details provided by you or any third party in the exercise by you of any of your rights, such as a request for a credit report, request for an amendment, placing an explanatory statement or notice of suspected impersonation are retained for a period of 5 years.
Personal information collected in operating the Central Credit Register may also be used to maintain accurate information on the Central Credit Register in accordance with applicable law, including the General Data Protection Regulation. Personal information provided by you in the exercise of any rights, such as your PPSN, address(es) which is not already on the Central Credit Register, may be added to the Central Credit Register to ensure the accuracy of the personal data held in relation to you.
On the credit report provided to lenders, only the most recent two years of detailed payment information is provided. Lenders will also see limited information on key repayment indicators within the last five years, for example the Maximum Number of Payment Past Due within the last five years of the contract’s history.
Each time you or a prospective lender obtains your credit report, a record is created on your credit report, called a footprint. This footprint records the date, the lender name, and the reason why that particular lender sought your credit report.
The footprint is shown at the end of the report and shows those lenders who have enquired on your credit report in the last 5 years.
However, a lender when they make an enquiry, will only be shown those lenders who have enquired on your credit report in the last 2 years.
The Central Bank has recently (August 2023) identified an issue which prevented the automatic deletion of certain data which was due to be removed from the CCR database. Further information is available at centralbank.ie. This issue has been corrected and the relevant deletion processes for CCR data are now operating as intended. In order to facilitate our investigation of this matter we will be retaining copies of certain CCR data in a separate database. This database will not be utilised to generate credit reports and we intend to delete the database when our investigation has concluded.
The Central Credit Register does not:
- decide if a loan is approved or not – the lender makes that decision;
- score or grade credit reports