Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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210. To ask the Minister for Finance the steps that have been taken to establish a central credit register here; when the register will be up and running; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3632/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Credit Reporting Act 2013 provides that the Central Bank is responsible for the establishment and operation of the central credit register (CCR).

The Central Bank has informed me that it completed a public procurement process in 2014. The purpose of the process was to select a partner and solutions to support the CCR. The Bank is currently negotiating the final details of the contract with the preferred supplier. The Bank also engaged with representative industry groups to explain its approach and gain an understanding of the likely implications of the CCR for lenders.

I understand that the Central Bank intends to take a phased approach to the establishment and development of the register. The initial phase of the CCR will focus on the consumer credit market and is expected to become operational by mid-2016. A later phase will address commercial credit and is tentatively scheduled to be operational by end- 2017.

The operational implementation of the credit register is a complex process and the final timeline will be influenced by:

1. the scale of technical and operational changes to be implemented by over 500 lenders within the scope of the CCR; and

2. the final detailed obligations to be set out in regulations.

It is anticipated that 2015 will be spent in developing and testing the technical solutions in partnership with relevant stakeholders with credit data being supplied by lenders on a phased basis during the course of late 2015 and into 2016.