On July 3, 2024, the new Law No. 21,680 was published in the Official Gazette, creating an official registry of information related to credit obligations (“RDC” or “Registry”), which will be kept by the Financial Market Commission (“CMF” or “Commission”). As stated in Article 1 of the Law, the purpose of the RDC is to improve the credit evaluation system for individuals and to provide the CMF with more information so that it can better exercise its legal regulatory and supervisory powers.
It also states that the access of Reporters to the CDR “shall be made for the sole purpose of assessing, with respect to specific persons, the commercial risk, credit risk and risk management for specific transactions, in accordance with the provisions of this law and other applicable regulations”.
Once the reportable obligations have been credited to the CMF under this Law, the reporting institutions may not request additional information on these obligations from the credit applicant, unless there are justified reasons for their request. However, the above restriction shall refer exclusively to information on reportable obligations, but in no case shall it prohibit the review of other types of information that would allow the creditor to perform the economic solvency analysis.
The stored data provided by the reporting parties to the CMF corresponds to the latest information available on the debtors, and shall be considered true, and therefore considered official data, without prejudice to the right established in Article 8 of the Law.
In its Article 2, the Law contains key definitions of the legal text, among which we highlight:
a) Banks, insurance companies, agents administrators of endorsable mortgage loans, credit card issuers supervised by the Commission, family allowance compensation funds and savings and credit cooperatives supervised by the Commission, with respect to reportable obligations in which they have the status of creditor.
b) Securitization companies, with respect to reportable obligations in which the creditor is a separate patrimony constituted by them.
c) Any other entity supervised by the CMF as determined by it through a general rule (“NCG”), that is a creditor of reportable obligations or that may have debt information in their balance sheets, in their transaction systems or in the assets they manage, including credit counseling entities regulated by Law No. 21,521, which promotes competition and financial inclusion through innovation and technology in the provision of financial services (Fintec Law).
d) Individuals, natural or legal persons, and other entities that, having entered into transactions in the last calendar year as a creditor of reportable obligations, comply with the conditions established by the CMF through NCG (it shall not include annual aggregate amounts of reportable obligations lower than 100,000 Unidades de Fomento, or a number lower or equal to one thousand annual transactions, without prejudice that in this regard it establishes that such aggregate amounts must be determined for groups of related persons, as indicated in Article 100 of Law No. 18,045, of the Securities Market). The CMF may define the circumstances in which it will consider as a single reporting party companies belonging to the same corporate group, as established in article 96 of the aforementioned law No. 18,045.
In order to determine the Reporters, the CMF may use, in whole or in part, the information contained in the list referred to in Article 31 of Law No. 18,010 on money lending operations for the respective annual period.
In the event that the aforementioned conditions are not met, the entities that are in this situation “shall lose their status as reporters, however, they shall remain in such status only for the purpose of complying with the obligations of this law, for a period of five years from the loss of such qualification, with respect to. those reportable obligations that they have previously reported. Notwithstanding the foregoing, their obligation of reserve shall be of a permanent nature. “. Also, as an additional sanction, non-compliant entities will not have access to CDR information unless they comply with these conditions again.
It is important to note that the Law expressly establishes that the Central Bank of Chile and the General Treasury of the Republic shall not be considered in any case as Reporters.
In accordance with Article 3 of the Law, the CDR will be administered exclusively by the CMF, the authority responsible for maintaining it and granting access to it, through digital means or systems, such as remote and automated access interfaces or other additional ones that it may determine that allow for interconnection and direct communication to the reporting parties, their agents, the debtors, and third parties authorized by the latter, in accordance with Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the Law. The CMF must always ensure the privacy of the data, in accordance with Law No. 19,628, on the protection of privacy, security and continuity of the Registry. This will be regulated by NCG.
It is important to note that in accordance with the final paragraph of the aforementioned Article 3, the information provided by the Reporters and contained in the CDR will be confidential, in accordance with the provisions of Article 28 of Decree Law No. 3,538 of 1980, being applicable the provisions of said article, including the second paragraph, which allows sharing this information with other agencies, and paragraphs 5 and 34 of Article 5 of the same law, when applicable.
With respect to the obligation to report, Article 4 of the Law provides:
(a) Reporters must inform the CMF of all reportable obligations as defined in Article 2:
/i/ identity of the debtor, without requiring its consent; /ii/ nature; /iii/ main terms and conditions; /iv/ terms; /v/ guarantees provided; /vi/ compliance status and /vii/ any other related information determined by the CMF.
(b) Reporters shall provide current, accurate and complete information.
(c) Failure to submit, or late, outdated, inaccurate, incomplete or in a format different from that provided for in the regulations in force, may be sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of this Law, and must be corrected by the reporting party within the term set forth in the respective sanctioning resolution, which may not exceed fifteen banking business days from the date of notification of the resolution.
(d) The FMC may order the updates, rectifications or complements that it deems pertinent, even before deciding to initiate possible sanctioning processes to that effect, in order to maintain the integrity and continuity of the Register.
For their part, Reporters and Debtors will have access to the information contained in the DRC under the terms and conditions set forth, respectively, in articles 5 and 7 of the Law.
For the purpose of assessing the credit risk of the Debtors, the Reporting Parties may appoint agents in accordance with article 6 of the Law.
For these purposes, Article 8 of the Law contemplates the right to request the respective Reporting Party to update, rectify or complement the information provided to the CMF in relation to the RDC.
Once the request is received, the reporting party will have fifteen bank working days to accept or reject it and send the response to the applicant. The request must be accepted by the reporting party when the information in the RDC is indeed outdated, inaccurate or incomplete, regardless of whether the information stored in its own database is updated, accurate and complete.
If the request is accepted, the reporting party must, within five banking days of the corresponding response, update, rectify or supplement its database, as the case may be, and deliver such information to the Commission. Upon receipt of the new information, the Commission shall incorporate it in the Register within a maximum period of seven banking days.
If the request is rejected, the reporter must include in its response the arguments and background information on which the rejection is based.
The right set forth in this article shall also apply in the event that the RDC does not store information regarding reportable obligations that, in accordance with the Law, must be reported to the CMF.
In any case, the CMF may, at the request of the debtor, if it has sufficient background information and when the request has been rejected by the Reporting Party, order the updates, rectifications or complements it deems appropriate, without prejudice to the claims procedure established in Article 12 of the Law.
Pursuant to Article 9 of the Law, debtors may also request the respective Reporting Party to eliminate their information or obligations stored in the RDC. In order to do so, they must indicate the information they wish to have deleted and justify their request. Likewise, the procedure contemplated in the Law will be followed for these purposes.
The exercise of the rights enshrined in this law shall always be free of charge for Debtors and Reporters.
The aforementioned rights cannot be waived.
Principle of specialty
The rights contemplated in the Law are exclusive of those granted, with the same scope, by Law No. 19,628, on the protection of privacy, and the latter may not be exercised with respect to the data stored in the RDC.
Other regulated aspects
In addition, the Law, in its articles 15 and following, also pronounces on:
(a) Sale or assignment of portfolio of loans from Reporting Entities.
(b) Supervision and oversight of Reporters by the CMF.
(c) Supplementary regulation. In all matters not regulated by this law, the provisions of Law No. 19,628, on the protection of privacy, with the exception of its Title III, shall be applied supplementarily, in accordance with the provisions of Article 11 of this law.
(d) Responsibility, infringements (minor, serious and very serious) and applicable penalties. Minor infractions will be sanctioned with a written warning or a fine of up to 100 monthly tax units. Serious violations will be sanctioned with a fine of up to 5,000 monthly tax units. In the event of a repeat offense, in accordance with the provisions of Article 24, the CMF may apply a fine of up to three times the amount assigned to the offense committed. Very serious infringements shall be sanctioned with a fine of up to 10,000 monthly tax units. In the event of a repeat offense, in accordance with the provisions of Article 24, the CMF may apply a fine of up to three times the amount assigned to the offense committed.
(e) Mitigating and aggravating circumstances of liability are contemplated.
Main transitional rules
These contemplate that:
(a) The NCG referred to in the Law must be issued by the CMF within twelve months from the publication of this law, on July 3, 2024.
(b) This Law shall become effective on the first day of the twenty-first month following its publication. That is, April 1, 2026.
(c) The CMF shall create and have the RDC enabled before the first day of the sixteenth month after the publication of this law, that is, November 1, 2025.
For any question related to this topic, please contact Javier Edwards.
Ontier LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, registration number OC327289.
