Consumer loans and the role of the Credit Bureaus in Europe

The working paper makes the results of the conference proceedings on ‘Consumer Loans and the Role of the Credit Bureaus in Europe’ available, which took place in May 2009 at the EUI in Florence. The topic of the conference should be located in the changing legal environment for credit bureaus. This is largely due to the fact that the European capital market is gradually taking shape. The recent Directive 2008/48 on consumer credit has for the first time recognised credit bureaus as necessary institutions to exchange information on the creditworthiness of consumers. In the aftermath of the adoption of the Consumer Credit Directive, the working environment for credit bureaus has changed. The overall idea of the convenors was to initiate a dialogue which could break up the still existing compartmentalisation in different networks. The conference brought together representatives from credit bureaus, consumer organisations, data protection agencies, national supervisory authorities, consumer protection agencies, consumer protection ministries and the European Commission. We hope that the publication will serve as good and solid start for a long-lasting dialogue between all the actors involved in consumer credit issues.