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News

The Ombudsman proposed to have a mechanism for deletion of data in the Central Credit Register on loan contracts declared void by the court

Tuesday, 12.08.2025

12 August 2025 

Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva proposed in a letter to the BNB's Deputy Governor, Head of the Banking Department, Petar Chobanov, to discuss the possibility of an amendment to Ordinance No. 22 of 16 July 2009 on the Central Credit Register (CCR), which would provide a mechanism for an interested individual to have the right to submit a request for deletion of information in the CCR about their credit indebtedness when their loan agreement has been declared null and void by the court. Thus, the rights and interests of citizens in relation to the information provided about them in the CCR will be effectively protected, as such agreements do not give rise to legal effect from the outset.

Before formalising her proposal, the Ombudsman and the BNB Deputy Governor held a meeting at which Velislava Delcheva presented her arguments. At the meeting, it became clear that the BNB is currently preparing changes to the ordinance in question.

The reason for the proposal of Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva are numerous identical complaints over the years, in which citizens express their dissatisfaction with the fact that despite the court decisions declaring the nullity of the loan agreements, their names continue to "hang" in the BNB register as debtors with bad credit records. This, in turn, constitutes an obstacle to future lending by banks or financial institutions.

The latest complaint is from these past few days, in which a complainant seeks assistance from the Ombudsman because a fast credit company repeatedly refuses to submit correcting information to the Central Credit Register (CCR) following a final court decision declaring his consumer credit contract null and void.

With regard to the specific complaint, the BNB informed the Ombudsman that the obligations under the loan agreement declared void by the court did not exist from the very beginning. The BNB points out that the continued recording of such a claim in the CCR would be unlawful and misleading both in relation to BNB, other credit market participants and the borrower himself. The BNB highlights that the lack of a timely correction following a final court decision may have undesirable legal implications, including administrative and civil ones, as well as calling into question the integrity of the data processing. The BNB also points out that the responsibility for updating the information in the CCR in the event of a change in the legal grounds for the existence of liabilities rests entirely with the financial institution concerned. 

This is the reason why Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva proposed extension of the scope of persons having the right to present the court decision and not only the legal entity that granted the loan.

"In this case, the affected individual will have the greatest interest in "cleaning up" his credit record by presenting the court decision on the nullity of his loan agreement," Delcheva is adamant. 

The Ombudsman's argument is that a judicially declared null and void agreement means that it has not existed in the legal world and therefore did not produce any legal effects. 

The Ombudsman points out that according to the reasoning of the Interpretative Decision of 30 May 2022 of the Supreme Court of Cassation, in Interpretative Case No. 5 of 2020 of the General Assembly of the Civil and Commercial Chambers of the Supreme Court of Cassation: "The grounds for nullity and voidability of contracts are listed separately in the provisions of Articles 26 – 33 of the Obligations and Contracts Act and what they have in common is that they have defects (legal facts) which prevent the legal effect of the contract from the outset or open the possibility of the retroactive cancellation of the legal consequences produced. The most serious contractual defect is nullity. It is absolute (valid for all and can be invoked by anyone), it is inherent and cannot be remedied."

In relation to the specific complaint, the public defender also approached the fast loan company in question with a recommendation to update the information in the CCR on the complainant's consumer loan agreement claims, based on the specific court decision.

In response to the Ombudsman, the company stated that there was no basis whatsoever for making a further adjustment to the liability under the consumer loan agreement in question, citing several arguments: "the principal arrears should not be removed as they are present"; "removing them would constitute an incorrect manipulation of the national database on loans granted and borrowers' arrears and would mislead the organisations that carry out the CCR enquiries that the person is a correct borrower, which is clearly not the case."

Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva is adamant that these arguments are irrelevant to a loan agreement declared null and void by the court, which means that it has never been concluded and no one can draw rights from such an agreement.

"To this end, I propose that an amendment to the Ordinance be considered, giving the individual concerned the opportunity to request the deletion of information in the CCR about his credit indebtedness on the basis of a loan agreement declared void by a court. I express my confidence that the proposal will be carefully examined and, after the necessary analysis, the Ordinance will provide for an effective mechanism for the deletion of data on loan contracts declared null and void by the courts," the Ombudsman wrote in her letter to the BNB Deputy Governor Petar Chobanov.

 

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