Jersey data to be shared with credit agencies.

Local media has recently reported the challenges that Jersey residents have faced accessing credit card services and the key barrier presented by the absence of electoral register equivalent information being provided to credit reference agencies for Jersey residents.

Therefore, the following Draft Law has been developed to follow the established concepts and processes of credit reference agencies to enable implementation whilst limiting the use of data to the purposes for which the Minister is providing the information.

The https://statesassembly.gov.je/assemblypropositions/2023/p.56-2023.pdf was lodged au Greffe on 31 July and will be debated on 12 September 2023.
• https://statesassembly.gov.je/assemblypropositions/2023/p.56-2023.pdf https://statesassembly.gov.je/assemblypropositions/2023/p.56-2023.pdf

It proposes amendments to the https://www.jerseylaw.je/laws/current/Pages/15.660.aspx (the “RNA Law”) to permit the Minister to supply certain information about Jersey residents from the Register of Names and Addresses (“the Register”) maintained under the RNA Law, to credit reference agencies.
• https://www.jerseylaw.je/laws/current/Pages/15.660.aspx

Before the coming into effect of this amendment, an Order will be made to prescribe specific details as required under the Draft Law.

It is considered that the supply of information to credit reference agencies will enable the efficient performance of affordability checks, as will be required under the proposed consumer lending regime, and customer due diligence verifications, in accordance with money laundering requirements, as are required to be performed by service providers when onboarding a potential customer for credit.

There are no credit reference agencies established in Jersey, and consequently, there is no current regulation of credit reference agency business in Jersey.

Thus, the proposal envisages sharing the information with credit reference agencies, which are

• authorised and subject to conduct regulation in the UK under the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (or authorised in another jurisdiction with equivalent regulation) and
• subject to equivalent data protection legislation as the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 (the “Data Protection Law”).

This is built into the Draft Law as a condition for the Minister's prescription of a credit reference agency.

The proposal further recognises the importance of safeguarding the information supplied to the credit reference agencies and will impose a further condition on the Minister that they must be satisfied that the agency has in place adequate systems for securing the confidentiality and integrity of the information and will use the relevant information only for the specified purposes.


https://statesassembly.gov.je/assemblypropositions/2023/p.56-2023.pdf