Bill 303.

Summary.

The bill amends Law 24 of 2002, which regulates credit history information services for consumers and clients. As a right concerning the handling of information, it provides that data held by a credit information agency may not be used for purposes incompatible with those for which they were collected. It permits processing for historical, statistical, or scientific purposes. It also permits a lender to consult the data while reviewing and monitoring a consumer’s or client’s credit behavior during the term of the financing it granted. Evaluating job candidates is treated as an incompatible purpose, except where the Law allows it.

The bill requires the consumer’s or client’s express consent or authorization before credit history data may be collected or transmitted to credit information agencies and supplied by those agencies to economic actors. It makes an exception for economic, financial, banking, commercial, and industrial obligations evidenced by checks protested for insufficient funds, drawn on a closed checking account, or subject to a stop payment order. The right to consent applies to data from credit transactions arising after the Law enters into force. The authorization must be retained for as long as the data remain in the agency’s database. Consent must state the specific authorized purpose; later use for another purpose would constitute unlawful processing.

Credit information agencies would have to notify consumers or clients, through their registered contact channels, of every attempted or completed access to their credit history by an economic actor, whether or not that actor is authorized. The notice would identify the actor, the date, and the stated purpose. Agencies would also record inquiries by their staff in an internal database, together with the reason for each review.

The bill classifies requesting, using, or making a credit history a condition of hiring, continued employment, or promotion as a very serious violation, subject to statutory exceptions. It changes the penalty for very serious violations to include a fine of five thousand balboas and one cent (B/.5,000.0l) to ten thousand balboas (B/.lO,OOO.OO), as well as an order suspending the offending economic actor’s use of inquiry systems. It also prohibits public or private individuals and entities from requesting, accessing, or using information held by a credit information agency to select, hire, promote, or dismiss workers. The prohibition would not apply to positions involving the direct administration, supervision, handling, or custody of funds, securities, or financial assets, where documented justification exists. A violation would be classified as very serious. The bill sets entry into force for the day after promulgation.

The Consumer Protection and Competition Defense Authority (Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa de la Competencia) is named as a sanctioning authority in the amended provision. The bill could affect or interest consumers, credit information agencies, economic actors, employers, and workers, including those in the financial, commercial, and industrial sectors.