חוק נתוני אשראי (תיקון מס' 6), התשפ"ו–2026Credit Data Law (Amendment No. 6), 2026 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

The amendment to the Credit Data Law, 2016, includes two main parts: The first part concerns the establishment of a credit data database that includes information on corporations. Establishing such a database could increase competition in the credit market for the business sector, since exposure to the information in the database will help credit providers price the credit they provide to corporations more accurately, thereby expanding the volume of credit they provide to corporations and the ability of credit providers to compete with banking corporations. Under the amendment, the Governor of the Bank of Israel (hereinafter – the Governor) is authorized to determine, in rules, in consultation with the Minister of Justice and with the approval of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, that a credit data database including information on small and medium-sized corporations will be established, in addition to the database that already exists today containing information on individuals. If it is determined that such a database will be established, bodies engaged in providing credit, such as banks, credit card companies, and various public authorities, will be required to transfer to the database data regarding credit obligations and repayment of credit obligations of small and medium-sized corporations. Under the amendment to the Law, access to the information in the database will be granted only to credit bureaus, which are private bodies authorized to transfer the data in the database to credit providers, as well as to provide various services based on it, such as credit reports and credit ratings. In addition, it is provided that the Governor may determine in rules, among other things, provisions regarding the bodies that will be permitted to receive information from the database, the type of credit data to be transferred, and the conditions for its delivery (it is clarified that rules regarding data from a government information source will also require the approval of the minister responsible for that information source). The second part of the amendment to the Law includes changes intended to improve the efficiency of the credit data database currently existing for individuals, following lessons learned over the years since the Law came into force in 2019. Among other things, it is provided that a credit provider may not request from a customer a data summary report regarding them or a credit report regarding them that was provided to the customer by another credit provider, since presenting the loan terms appearing in the report to a competing credit provider could prevent the customer from receiving a good offer matching their credit risk, and also because allowing information to be obtained indirectly harms the incentive of credit providers to transfer information to the database itself. In addition, it is provided that when credit bureaus provide credit providers with a credit scoring service, that is, an assessment of the likelihood that a customer will meet the payment obligations they have undertaken, they may not take into account negative data recorded regarding the customer beyond one year, unless the Minister of Justice, with the consent of the Governor of the Bank of Israel and with the approval of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, determines a different period in regulations, in contrast to the current situation whereby credit bureaus take such negative information into account for 3 years. The reason for this is that a negative credit score often leads to the disproportionate rejection of a customer's credit applications, since the criteria leading to a negative credit score do not necessarily indicate a problem with the customer's repayment ability, or at the very least do not indicate a problem with repayment ability for such a long period of time. In addition, provisions were established regarding a customer's request not to be included in the database, whereby from the date such a request is submitted, no data about the customer will be provided, except in exceptional cases; however, the deletion of the customer's data from the database will only take place after one year from the date of submitting the request not to be included in the database, or from the date of actual exclusion from the database, whichever is later. Provisions were also established regarding the examination of eligibility to serve as officeholders in a credit bureau, a prohibition on conflicts of interest for such officeholders, and granting authority to the Supervisor of Credit Data Sharing, who is a Bank of Israel employee appointed by the Governor (hereinafter – the Supervisor), to object to such appointments. In addition, it is provided that the Supervisor may be assisted by an examiner in carrying out supervisory and oversight functions under the Law, even if that examiner is not a Bank of Israel employee, provided that the examiner does not exercise authority involving discretion granted to the Supervisor by law. A procedure was also established regulating the Supervisor's ability to send a notice of defects to any of the following parties if the Supervisor believes that the party has violated or is likely to violate the provisions of the Law: a credit bureau, a paid agent as defined in the Law (that is, a person whom a customer has authorized to receive a report regarding them containing the information included about them in the database over the last three years), an information source required or permitted to transfer information to the database, a credit provider, or a person to whom another's obligation within the framework of a transaction for the supply of an asset or service has been assigned.

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