Positive credit register

Under the Consumer Protection Act, credit providers are obligated to assess your creditworthiness on the basis of sufficient information when issuing a loan.

Credit providers shall:

• check your loans and income from the Positive credit register to assess your creditworthiness as of 1 April 2024
• report certain data on consumer credits to the Positive credit register. Consumer credits include, for example, home and car loans, consumption loans, credit cards, student loans, and hire-purchase agreements.

You can also use the Positive credit register as a tool for managing your own finances.

What data is stored in the Positive credit register?

Granted loans and changes made to them

• Credit providers report to the Positive credit register on the loans they issue and on any changes in the loans, such as paid amortisations and changes to loan contracts, including information on the ending of the loan.
• TFor more detailed information on the credit data stored in the Positive credit register, visit the website of the Finnish Tax Administration which serves as the controller of the register

Information on delayed amounts and loan acceleration

• Information on instalments that are more than 60 days late from the original due date are reported to the Positive credit register as delayed amounts. The credit provider will remove the information on the delayed amount after the instalment is paid off in full.
• Credit providers shall also report to the register on the acceleration of a loan and the date of acceleration, if the loan has been accelerated in full on account of delayed amounts.
• No information on any payment defaults is stored in the register.

 Income information

• In addition to information on loans, income data is also stored in the Positive credit register. The income data is received from the Incomes Register.

Voluntary ban on credits

• The Positive credit register shall include information on voluntary credit bans. If you have set a voluntary ban on credits for yourself, credit providers must consider lending even more carefully than usual.
• A voluntary credit ban can be set either for an indefinite or a fixed period. Setting a voluntary credit ban is free of charge.
• A voluntary credit ban can be enforced, for example, if there is an increased risk of misuse of your personal data or if you want to use the credit ban as a tool for managing your own finances.

How can you use the Positive credit register?

• You can use the Positive credit register through the e-service (vero.fi). The use of the e-service is free of charge. All the instructions can be found on the Tax Administration’s website.
• In the e-service, you can view your own data stored in the Positive credit register and check which credit providers have requested your data from the register, when and for what purpose. In addition, you can see what data has been delivered to the credit providers.
• You can set a voluntary ban on credits for yourself in the e-services or edit existing credit bans.
• Having information on your loans available in one place can help you monitor your financial standing, grasp the overall situation, and manage your finances.

Controller and users of the Positive credit register, and the role of authorities

• The controller of the Positive credit register is the Income Register Unit of the Finnish Tax Administration.
• The law dictates who has the right to obtain information from the register and for what purpose.
• Credit providers may order a credit register extract about you to assess your creditworthiness.
• Some authorities have the right to use the register data to, for example, supervise and monitor the credit markets. For example, the Consumer Ombudsman has the right to obtain essential information from the register to perform their statutory supervisory tasks.
• Credit providers are obliged to report existing loans to the Positive credit register, and compliance with this obligation is supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIVA) and the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (ESAVI).
• The Data Protection Ombudsman’s office supervises the handling of personal data in the positive credit information register. If there are mistakes in your data, refer to the guidelines on the Data Protection Ombudsman’s website (In Finnish).

Legislation

Act on the Positive Credit Register

The Positive credit register

Frequently asked questions about the Positive credit register (vero.fi)