Commentary on Sections Financial information about businesses Section 4: Small and medium sized businesses: information to credit reference agencies
118.Section 4 gives the Treasury the power to make regulations imposing a duty on designated banks to provide information about their small and medium sized business customers to designated credit reference agencies (“CRAs”), and to impose a duty on designated CRAs to provide information about small and medium-sized businesses to finance providers. Subsections (2) and (3) require that the recipient request the information and the business to which the information relates agree to the information being provided, before the duties apply. Subsection (4) enables the regulations to impose other conditions that must be met before the duty applies to a CRA, such as the finance provider that has requested the data providing information about its small and medium sized business customers to the CRA.
119.Subsection (5) requires the regulations to describe the information that must be provided by designated banks and CRAs (and by finance providers requesting information, if a condition is imposed requiring the provision of data by finance providers). Subsection (7) requires the regulations to provide for the designation of banks and CRAs by the Treasury, which may include matters such as conditions that banks or CRAs must meet before they may be designated, considerations or advice that the Treasury may take into account, how the list of designated banks and CRAs is to be published, and the revocation of designations.
120.The Act allows regulations to make different provision for different purposes, cases or areas. This means that the regulations may make different provisions for banks, CRAs and finance providers, or for particular types of bank, CRA or finance provider. The regulations may also provide that the criteria for designating banks or CRAs under subsection (7) differ as between different parts of the UK.