ACCIS – Association of Consumer Credit Information Suppliers issued its response to the proposal for a general data protection regulation and offers a perspective of credit reporting agencies
ACCIS supports the proposal to improve and update the European data protection framework, however, has concerns that due to unintended consequences, the credit provision necessary for economic growth may be significantly harmed, at a time when governments are working hard to introduce strategies which support economic growth.
The ACCIS position in a nutshell:
Legitimate Interest: Legitimate interest is an important legal basis for credit reporting agencies and it should be allowed for processing (including automated processing – i.e. credit scoring) which is needed to perform creditworthiness assessment, credit risk prevention checks and fight over-indebtedness.
Processing of special categories of data: Gender identity and administrative judgements and sanctions should not be included in the list of special categories of data due to their importance for proper creditworthiness assessment, credit risk prevention checks, including antifraud prevention and identification purposes.
Right to erasure and to be forgotten Right to object: In the case of data collected by credit reporting agencies, consumers should provide a justified reason to erase their data or a reasonable objection to processing, which shall not however override credit reporting agencies’ legitimate interest to process data for creditworthiness assessment and credit risk prevention checks, including antifraud prevention and identification purposes.
Measures based on profiling: Automated profiling performed by credit reporting agencies (i.e. credit scoring) guarantees neutrality in the evaluation of consumers’ credit records. Too restrictive rules on automated processing/profiling would be to the detriment for both consumers and SMEs alike. Mandatory human assessment on all decisions based on automated profiling would stretch waiting times for consumers or make consumer lending at the point-of-sale impossible and increase the risk of bias in the decision-making as well as the risk of fraud.
To read the full story: ACCIS Position Paper 30 July 2015
Source: Courtesy of ACCIS
BIIA supports the ACCIS initiative
