A European perspective on consumer loans and the role of credit registries: The need to reconcile data protection, risk management, efficiency, over-indebtedness, and a better prudential supervision of the financial system

Abstract

The paper examines the role of credit registries in the context of European consumer credit markets and the current policies of the EU in this area. It attempts to show the institutional challenges relating to some competing rights or interests amongst consumers and financial institutions and the need for a strengthened prudential supervision of the financial system as evidenced by the recent crisis whose effects have spread into the global economy. In particular, it shows that there is a conflict between the right to data protection of consumers, the risk management interests of lenders, and the prudential supervision of the credit system. The ultimate goal, thus, is to present some weaknesses of the current arrangements and to put forward a proposal that is probably controversial but that is intended to stimulate a debate from an alternative policy perspective that is wider than the current one.