The Central of information of risks of the Bank of Spain (CIRBE) is a public service belonging to the Bank of Spain that serves to inform and control the risks susceptible of being declared by a natural or legal person by virtue of its activity and economic management.
These risks may be related to the default of loans, credits or guarantees. That natural or legal person that joins this list will be part of the files of the CIR (Central of information of risks) and will have, in many of the cases, limited its access to credits, fiscal advantages, cards, since the companies they will access these records in order to perform due diligence on the person’s situation. If a person or company is included in this registry, it has a very negative connotation since it can resemble a “list of delinquents”.
The rights of access, rectification or cancellation of the data of these files can be made at the request of the interested parties, communicating with the CIR electronically, in person or by mail, complying with a series of requirements.
CIRBE operation
Financial institutions have the obligation to declare CIRBE monthly of their credit risks and their holders. The minimum declaration amount is generally 6000 euros. The risks that are declared are of two types:
- Direct risks: Risks derived mainly from financial leases, loans, credits or fixed income securities of the entity, guarantees.
- Indirect risks: Originated as a result of those who guarantee and guarantee other customers.
It is important to mention that these data are updated daily.
CIRBE Functions
CIRBE has a series of clearly defined functions:
- Inform about the risks and the economic situation of a natural or legal person. This is important in cases of granting loans, for example, where the economic situation of the interested party is taken into account by making a feasibility study and scoring by the company granting the loan to the interested person.
- Facilitate greater transparency and accessibility to the risks of economic agents.
- Avoid fraud of all kinds, fiscal and economic.
- Improve the efficiency in the detection of risks of financial institutions.
There are criticisms of the rules through which agents are incorporated into this registry. Since, in some cases, the amount of the debt is very small and the time of default is also, sometimes caused by information failures in payments.
