What the CCR contains

The CCR registers the current and potential credit commitments of:

  • legal entities (except for banks and foreign bank branches)
  • individual entrepreneurs

The obligations of the above entities are subject to registration regardless of whether they are resident or non-resident in terms of their activities in the Czech Republic.

The credit commitments of natural persons (private individuals) are not registered in the CCR. Information on these commitments is recorded in the Client Information Bank Register (CIBR) operated by the Czech Banking Credit Bureau.

The collection of credit information about clients in the register operated by the Czech National Bank and the sharing of this information by the defined group of CCR users is based on provisions of Act No. 21/1992 on Banks, as amended (Article 38a).

Claims of banks and foreign bank branches operating in the Czech Republic and of other entities where so stipulated by a special legislative act ("CCR participants") are subject to registration in the CCR.

The individual credit commitments of CCR participants are registered. These cover:

  • loans drawn, including overdrafts
  • current account debit balances
  • undrawn lending arrangements and standby credits
  • guarantees issued
  • credit equivalents of selected off-balance-sheet claims

CCR participants are obliged to register their credit commitments regardless of amount (except for current account debit balances with a registration duty if exceeding CZK 2,000).

For the period 9/2012-8/2018, the CCR also contains the credit commitments of legal entities vis-à-vis creditors in EU countries which exceeded EUR 25,000 on aggregate and which arose from international exchange of information between selected countries (AT, BE, CZ, DE, FR, IT, ES, PT and RO). This international cooperation was discontinued in 2018 due to the launch of the ECB's AnaCredit system for credit data collection.

The CCR database, updated on a monthly basis, contains:

  • client identification data (ID number or registration number of foreign entity, legal form, company name, registered address, country of registered address, etc.)
  • claim values (total amount, current balance, date of origin and maturity of claim, past-due principal and interest, number of days past due, currency, types of collateral, classification by economic activity, etc.)

Banks and branches of foreign banks carrying on business in the Czech Republic, as well as other persons where so provided in a special legislative act (CCR participants) have access to:

  • the credit burden of clients, including information on the total commitments of each client vis-à-vis banking sector entities in the Czech Republic (outstanding loan receivables from clients, including past-due debt, broken down by receivable type, loan purpose and past-due band) and commitments vis-à-vis foreign creditors
  • a detailed database of information provided to the CCR, including all own data entered into the database by the CCR participant

In 2012-2018, information on the outstanding loan receivables of legal entities exceeding EUR 25,000 in total was shared and exchanged between selected EU countries (AT, BE, CZ, DE, FR, IT, ES, PT and RO) on the basis of an international memorandum of understanding. However, this international cooperation was discontinued in 2018 due to the launch of the ECB's AnaCredit system for credit data collection. 

The CCR contains information subject to banking secrecy. The transfer of information from this database to legally recognised CCR participants is not a breach of banking secrecy. However, CCR participants must treat information on the clients of another participant acquired from the CCR as if it were information on their own clients.

Under the Act on Banks, any client about whom relevant information is held in the CCR has the right to request an extract from the register.

Information on the current status and 10-year history of client debt liabilities is available in the CCR. The aggregated form of the credit burden rules out the possibility of localisation of an individual client's commitments vis-à-vis a specific CCR participant.

If the required conditions for access to CCR information are met, CCR participants (banks and branches of foreign banks carrying on business in the Czech Republic, as well as other persons where so provided in a special legislative act) may verify clients' credit commitments using on-line enquiries. An aggregated monthly output of the credit burden of all its own clients is available to each CCR participant.

Binding rules on access to information by CCR participants are set forth in:

CNB Decree No. 164/2002 on the conditions of access to information contained in the information database of the Czech National Bank - the Central Credit Register