On September 11, 2002, the European Commission adopted and announced a “Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on the har-monization of the laws, regulations, and administrative propositions of the Member States concerning consumer credit; the draft consumer credit directive.”
The action was prompted by a perceived deficiency in the council directive existing at that time (“Council Directive concerning consumer credit; Directive 87/102/EEC” dated December 22, 1986). While this directive met the minimal requirements for consumer credit, the legal frameworks in various jurisdictions were individually developed. As a result of such developments, it was pointed out, the cross-border consumer credit services sought by the EU lacked common rules and principles common to participant countries for the purpose of consumer protection.
This Draft was drawn with a view to developing new rules for consumer credit encompassing the entire EU and seeks to address issues currently arising from various types of consumer credit other than housing loans.
Some respondents from diversified financial industries on this Draft argued that: (1) this directive will have large influence over credit bureaus now operating in individual countries; and (2) though the need to exchange information among credit bureaus in individual countries is indisputable, some countries have only negative information while others have only positive information, a condition unfavorable for the many lenders that are forced to assess credibility based on such information. Many other issues were also pointed out.
In light of these arguments, amendments to this issue were comprehensively discussed at the Legal Affaires Committee and the Economic and Monetary Affaires of the European Parliament, and the draft amendments to the EU exposure draft were adopted at the Plenary Session.
The Consumer Credit Monthly (the July 2004 edition describes this issue in depth, including the deliberation process). |