Bill 386.

Summary.

The bill would amend Law 24 of 2002, which governs credit-history information services for consumers or clients. It defines data information agencies as persons or entities that process and communicate credit-history data with the data subjects’ authorization, and economic agents as authorized suppliers of goods and services that record, provide and obtain information. It adds a numerical credit history: a quantitative measure of credit behavior used to assess the risk of granting credit, which must reflect the consumer’s or client’s current position.

Data supplied, managed or generated through economic, financial, banking, commercial or industrial transactions would have to be accurate and current. Economic agents and data information agencies would have to record payments, partial payments, payment arrangements and settlements, along with information needed to understand the credit history. After the first payment under an arrangement and once up to six months have elapsed, the economic agent would have to lower and update the numerical credit history to treat the consumer or client as complying with the obligation.

For payment arrangements, the bill would require a credit reference showing compliance after six months without arrears under the arrangement. It provides for an additional or supplementary history to be delivered when the economic agent requests it with the consumer’s or client’s authorization. The original credit relationship would be updated as arrears decrease, for up to six months. After a credit restructuring, if three months pass without subsequent arrears, the agent would have to reverse the credit reference, remove the original relationship from the history and continue reporting the obligation according to its current history.

Credit-history data held in an agency-administered database would become time-barred three years after the first payment was due and would then be removed. A consumer or client could request in writing that time-barred references concerning settled transactions remain on record. Queries by economic agents that do not result in a credit relationship would remain in the system for three years from the query date.

When a debt is settled, the economic agent, in coordination with the agency, would have to update the information within the following three business days. Failure would be a serious violation subject to sanctions by the Consumer Protection and Competition Defense Authority (Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa > de la Competencia). For sales of delinquent or overdue loan portfolios, the agent would have to notify the client; the new creditor would report from the purchase date without changing periods already elapsed. The bill prohibits agencies from listing guarantors in their databases and makes failure to keep numerical credit histories current a serious violation. The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) would prepare a consolidated, consecutively numbered text of Law 24 of 2002 incorporating changes made by Law 14 of 2006, Law 135 of 2013 and Law 195 of 2020, as well as those proposed here. The provisions could concern data agencies, financial institutions, creditors and consumers.