ACT No. IX of 2016 AN ACT to amend the Central Bank of Malta Act, Cap. 204.

I assent.

M ARIE L OUISE

(L.S.)

C OLEIRO P RECA

President

29th January, 2016

ACT No. IX of 2016

AN ACT to amend the Central Bank of Malta Act, Cap. 204.

BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and

consent of the House of Representatives, in this present Parliament

assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

(1) The short title of this Act is the Central Bank of Short title and

Malta (Amendment) Act, 2016, and this Act shall be read and commencement.

construed as one with the Central Bank of Malta Act, hereinafter Cap. 204.

referred to as "the principal Act".

(2) The provisions of this Act shall come into force on such a

date as the Minister responsible for Finance may by notice in the

Gazette establish, and different dates may be so established for

different provisions or different purposes of this Act.

The Arrangement of the Act shall be substituted by the Substitution of

the

following

"Arrangement

of the Act" in

the principal

" ARRANGEMENT OF ACT

Act.

Articles

Part I

Preliminary

1 - 2

Part II

Establishment and Conduct of Affairs of Bank

3 - 18

Part III

Financial Provisions

19 - 22

Part IV

Collection of Statistical and other Information

23 - 24

Part V

Relations with Government

25 - 29

Part VI

Relations with Credit and Financial Institutions

30 - 33

Part VII

Payment Systems and Payment Services

34 - 35

Articles

Part VIII

Relations with the Competent Authority

36 - 38

Part IX

Relations with International and other Organisations

39 - 41

Part X

Currency

42 - 55

Part XI

General

56 - 61

Part XII

Transitional Provisions for the Maltese Lira

62 - 63

".

Schedule

Article 24 of the principal Act shall be substituted by the

Substitution of

article 24 of the

following new article

principal Act.

" Establishment

(1) There shall be established a

of a Central

Central Credit Register (hereinafter referred to

Credit Register.

as "Register") at the Bank with non-anonymised

granular information on actual and contingent

exposures arising from credit and other facilities

granted to natural or legal persons or entities,

either resident or non-resident in Malta, to be

used for the following purposes

(a)

centralisation of information on

credit exposures;

(b) analysis of the stability of the

financial system;

(c) implementation of monetary

policy;

(d) compilation of statistics; and

(e)

facilitating the assessment of

credit risk.

(2) The Bank may issue, amend or revoke

directives imposing requirements on credit and

other institutions to provide information in

relation to the Register and setting out the

conditions for granting access to the information

held on the Register. The transfer of information

into or from the Register under the conditions

laid down by the Bank’s directives shall not be

deemed to be a breach of banking secrecy and

confidentiality obligations under any other law;

provided that institutions and other entities

granted access to the information held on the

Register shall ensure that the information is

protected against misuse and remains secret as if

it were information on their own clients.

(3) Borrowers shall have the right to have

an extract of the information kept on them on the

Register.

(4) Without prejudice to article 41, the

Bank may provide access to the information held

on the Register on the basis of reciprocity

arrangements to central banks and other

institutions of Member States of the European

Union that create databases comparable to the

Register, provided that the conditions of access

to this information and the confidentiality

requirements in the Member State in question

meet the criteria as laid down by this Act.

(5) The Bank may impose fees for

information provided or access granted to the

Register to institutions, persons or other entities.

(6) Notwithstanding the provisions of the

Malta Statistics Authority Act, the Bank may

require the Director General of the National

Statistics Office to pass to it information in

possession of or accessible to the National

Statistics Office which is necessary for the Bank

in the discharge of its duties in relation to the

Register and the National Statistics Office shall

comply with such request.

(7) The Bank shall forward extracts of

the information as received under sub-article (6)

to authorised officials of credit and other

institutions who are required to use this

information only for the purpose of sub-article

(1) to the extent and at the level of detail

necessary for the performance of their duties.".

4. In paragraph (b) of article 56 of the principal Act, for the Amendment of

words "under the provisions of article 23" there shall be substituted article

56 of the

principal Act.

the words "under the provisions of articles 23 or 24".

Passed by the House of Representatives at Sitting No. 347 of the

20th January, 2016.

A NĠLU F ARRUGIA

Speaker

R AYMOND S CICLUNA

Clerk of the House of Representatives

€0.54