15 years of efficient and continuous operations of the Central Registry of Credits

On 13 April, it is 15 years of efficient and continuous operations of the Central Registry of Credits. The Central Registry of Credits of business entities and natural persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina is an important element in providing a sound financial sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a single data base of credits and other debts of business entities and natural persons with the purpose of providing information to financial institutions on debts of legal entities and natural persons, and, very importantly, it is a support to the financial system stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, the data included are very significant to participants, during their analyses of creditworthiness and monitoring, the Entity Banking Agencies and the Central Bank, for analyses, and also to courts, prosecution authorities, public attorney’s offices, authorities in charge of internal affairs and police agencies for performing tasks from their competences as defined by law.  

The establishment of the Central Registry of Credits has been helped by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Central Registry of Credits of legal entities became operative 15 years ago, on 13 April 2006, which was the completion of the first phase of the project, and until the end of 2006, the second phase was also completed, including credits of natural persons and their guarantors. In the beginning, the Registry included only the debts of legal entities and natural persons in commercial banks, and gradually, the debts in other financial institutions – leasing companies, microcredit organisations, savings and credit institutions, were included as well. The access to the data in the Registry was possible only for commercial banks in the beginning, and later, for other participants in the Registry as well.

The data from the Registry can be accessed by direct insight via Internet and in the form of individual reports. Individual reports from the Registry are issued on the basis of the submitted request of a business entity or natural person, only for the debt of the person submitting the request. The submitted written request of a business entity should be signed by an authorised person and verified by the seal of such business entity. The submitted written request of a natural person should be signed by the natural person and include the number of the identification document and the name of the issuing institution.

The data in the Registry were updated on monthly basis until 2012. By the upgrade of the Registry in 2012, the daily updating of the data was achieved, which meant the daily notification of the changes which had occurred, which was additionally improved by the upgrade of the Registry in 2019, i.e. the „real time“ updating of data was made possible. The financial institutions submitting the data on debts into the Registry are responsible for correctness and updating of the data in the Registry.

The way of work and rules related to the Registry are defined by the Decision adopted by the Governing Board of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is published in Official Gazettes and on the internet site of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For more information: https://cbbh.ba/Content/Read/27